Today, I have the pleasure of sharing with you this simple black and white picture. Oh, the memories that accompany this scene! Driving in winter in the Northeastern states of our country can be very challenging indeed. I especially remember driving from Johnstown New York to Buffalo one snowy day in the deepest part of winter. The snow was coming down so fast and furious that a “white out” made driving extremely dangerous because the visibility ahead was almost non-existent. It is very, very stressful to drive under those conditions and even using the darkest pair of sunglasses I owned didn’t help much.
Its the not knowing what’s ahead that is bothersome to the extreme. As I think about all this, I remembered a passage from the New Testament, which says…
1 Thessalonians 4 ( World English Bible )
13 But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,
17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Growing up on a farm in upstate New York in the 1950’s, I had no idea what life would be like six or more decades later. Even the transition to a new century seemed far, far away. However, time does pass and I have been blessed with many years since I was a boy.
More than this, I have hope – hope in what the future holds for me. Hope not predicated on my feelings, but rather on what Jesus has done for me. I cannot see the future, but I know that someday I will be with him and somehow everything will be wonderful beyond anything that I can imagine.
Take another look at the picture at the top of the post. Notice that the road ahead is normal, then the road becomes blackness and finally overwhelming light. The difference between the blackness and the totality of the white become indistinguishable as both prevent one from using their vision to determine what is up ahead. Relax, we have comfort in Jesus, so that our faith becomes our sight; and the future ahead will be wonderful indeed!
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