Looking Across HWY 59

Last week I found myself waiting to have lunch with a client. I had arrived early and was watching for her from the parking lot. I find it so interesting to just stop occasionally and observe what is around me. I generally find that I miss so many meaningful sights as I rush along my way. Perhaps that is why the writings of our predecessors who rode from place to place on horseback seems to be deeper and more descriptive. They took time to see life. We have few Louisa Mae Alcott's, or James Finamore Cooper's amongst our writers today. Alas I digress.

As I waited I became aware of a rather trichotomous vista spread out before me. You see, I was in the little town of Avoca Iowa, at a restaurant just off the interchange of I 80 and US Highway 59. Highway 59 is a very busy road being a major north south artery. As I watched the travelers speed past me rushing to their next appointment, I became aware of the back drop. Directly across from where I was sitting, was a cemetery on a hill. The thought occurred to me that the people who were passing this spot had on their minds what their next destination was, but were probably not too concerned about their ultimate destination. While they were speeding past me, headed to some specified objective, the final destination for each of them would someday be either this cemetery or one very similar. It really caused me to consider that whatever the goal of my life is, if it does not include touching others, it will have been futile.

I said this was a trichotomous vista, for in the background of the cemetery I noticed a farmer on his combine harvesting the crop that had been planted and was ready to be taken from the field and put to the use for which it was grown. The recondite symbolism of what I was watching was not lost on me. In the foreground we have people who are mindlessly rushing from point to point doing things they have made important, all the while ignoring the limitations of time placed on all of us because our physical lives have a definite beginning and ending point. While this is happening, God is harvesting His field. Some of that harvest will be the good grain that will live eternally, others will be the chaff that has no value and will be disposed of in the fire.

We need to be sure of our status. We need to be the good grain, and if we are,we need to be about the things which are eternally important. It's not the next contract, or the grocery list, or even getting the kids from place to place, it is who you touch along the way. You are an important part of what God is doing in your world today.

Enjoy the Java,
Jim