BENDS IN THE ROAD

BEND IN THE ROAD

It has been a while since I have felt up to posting on here. I won't even try to explain all that has been going on with me the last while. But I would like to share something that is on my heart at this time. It is a bit different from the  stories of my childhood. I hope you will bear with me, and read on.

“I will turn the darkness into light before them, and make the rough places smooth.

 Is. 42:16

 Before I moved to my new Assisted Living home, I used to sit each morning in my living room by the patio door for my time of devotion and prayer. Across the room hung picture over my couch which showed a smooth road lined with beautiful Fall colored trees.  At the end of the road shown in the picture was a bend.  I would sometimes imagine how much my life has been like this picture.  For a long while I walked on the smooth road with ease, delighting in the glorious colors of God’s blessings and provisions.

Then, I would come to a bend in the road.  With no thought of what might lie around that bend, I kept walking, and couldn't have believed what I was seeing.  The smooth, beautiful road was now full of rocks and bumps of pain and problems of various kinds that I struggled to climb over; deep holes of despair I had to endure.  And the trees - what had happened?  Maybe a forest fire of sorts had hit, such I had seen on trips out West at times. I would really struggle to get through the intense heat and stress of those days and over the bumps in the road.  The beautiful trees were now charred black with dark days of depression, sorrow and seemingly endless problems. The beautiful leaves were gone, just as so much joy and peace in my life seemed to have been stripped from me.

When I look back I can now see how God helped me every time to get past all of the devastation, and I could see that the road had once again become smooth.  The trees were again beautiful, and would have spread a carpet of their beauty on the ground around them. 

Is this what the actual picture really depicted?  I have no idea.  But, as I said, I can see how it might have been that way, just as my life was smooth and beautiful for long stretches of time, until I came to the bends in the road.  I would simply not be able to see what was beyond those bends, and it was by God's grace that I wasn't able to see or I might not have gone on around the bends. I now can look back and see how I was strengthened by each "trip around the bends."

Now as a Senior do I still have days of bumps, holes and black trees? Of course I do, and maybe I feel I have even more than when I was young. But, God is faithful to still smooth out the road at times, just to give me a reprieve.  He shows me that, not only through the joyful parts of my life, He is still with me, and, in fact is using my weary, tired and somewhat broken body for His glory!! 

Just like those black trees, God has new life awaiting me in my future.  He promises beautiful, smooth “streets of gold” on which I will walk…...if I endure to the end!

How can I not go “around the bends” of my life?  I would miss so much that God has in store for me.  So, “I will rejoice in my sufferings,”…..(Rom. 5:3) for suffering "for Christ" which I try my best to do, holds so much hope for, not only me, but all of us.