Getting ready for a drive with my Dad. He’s drawing diagrams (as normal!)

Scripture
He controls my destiny. Job 23:14

Observation
It’s Thanksgiving day, or perhaps Christmas eve. On one end of the map is your toasty home with a strong roof and a thick comforter on your bed. On the other end of the road is your parents’ house with frosted windows, golden light pouring through the panes welcoming you into aromas, meals and love.

But between your house and your parent’s home stretches a windswept interstate with chilling winds, snow drifts and gas stations with dirty bathrooms. The road is not homey. Changing a flat tire in the blustering winds you might begin to wonder if there is any love in the world. On the windswept road the memories of home are snow blasted from your mind. The realities of the highway surround you: hitchhikers alone, roadkill ignored, billboards faded and headwinds.

Kids can’t handle this. “Are we there yet?” is the first full sentence any child first learns to speak in any language. But adults can handle the lonely motorway because they know that there is a home on either end of the lonely road. Love awaits them any direction they move, so they bundle up and move ahead.

There are windswept moments of life where we are left alone with a sovereign God. Job felt God’s presence and zipped up his jacket to shield himself from the cold wind. In chapter 1 of Job’s life were warm memories of family dinners. In chapter 42 of his life there would again be new families pictures. In between was a windswept road that only Job could travel. His friends leave the service road. HIs wife wouldn’t budge, so Job walked alone.

How was it that Job made it? Was it his great faith? Probably not, because more than faith is needed to counteract the fear of being alone with the will of God. What helps us on the lonely road is love. It is not our love for God but his love for us that casts out all fear.

Job put it this way,

But he knows where I am going.
And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. Job 23:10

Application
What keeps me driving long distances on black asphalt, under gray skies, through driving rain is the knowledge that there is love on the end of the highway. We need to reinterpret the sovereignty of God in these windswept moments. His will is not something uttered from an ice palace of a frozen heart of indifference. God’s will pours through his love. He is leading us home and the inclement roadway is his only way. Yes God is sovereign and because he is love sovereignty is a comforting thought.

Prayer
Father, keep me driving home. Amen.