The morning sky is so pretty, cool and pleasant. All the wind chimes are singing different songs pinging all their tubular notes loudly, happily. I love the symphony. I think Penelope wishes the symphony would stop. Father Sky opened his pastels and after coloring the sky cerulean blue, dragged his white pastel all over the blueness and overcast the sky with a thin layer of white cotton candy clouds. The sun wasn’t going to be hidden and burst through the clouds at lunch, bright and warm heating up the afternoon. At dusk Mother Nature dressed the sky in layers of deep pink, purples, and aqua so beautiful the sun paled in comparison to the candy colored sky.

My dearest friend began her retirement years today. Hope she remembered her working days are over and didn’t leap out of bed and get ready for work. I know her little dog is glad she’s home. We’ve been talking of a trip to the beach this spring. We went to Florida in October last year and a hurricane chased us home two days later. I told her I’d drive us anywhere in the continental US as long as we stayed off the interstates.

Chief and I always avoided the interstates. He had a reputation for finding a way to any destination without putting wheels on the interstate. He could always find a two lane highway with a courthouse to photograph. I always drove and he always navigated. I honestly think GPS would have depressed him. He loved his state maps and atlases, magnifying glass in his hand, finding interesting routes to our destination. He always said he was “journey proud.” Chief would love this quote from Charles Kuralt. “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.” Love it! And that’s true!

I think we all have to choose, do we want to enjoy the journey or do we want to arrive at the destination as quickly as possible. I don’t think life was meant to be lived quickly. If we live our lives like the interstate we never slow down enough to see the beauty of God’s world. Some of us just want to get there and get it over with. Some of us savor all the sights and sounds of the journey. Some of us never look out the windows of life. It all just passes quietly and then its too late to retrace the journey because it’s over.

God has already mapped out the highway of our lives. Jesus is the highway and he leads us to eternal life. In Isaiah 38 we read, “A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.” As we travel this holy highway, we grow in faith and learn to trust God’s directions. Our journey will not be easy and when the road gets rough we have to pray for the strength to not turn around and travel in an easier direction. They’ll be happy times and sorrowful times on our journey, but we persevere and keep traveling with God’s grace and love showing us the way. Psalm 23:3 states, “He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”

The highway to heaven narrows as we follow God’s teaching. When we come to a fork in the road or a detour on the highway we need to make a determined decision to follow the path of Jesus, make a commitment to stay on the righteous path. “The gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it,” Matthew 7:14. Make a conscious decision to always stay on God’s highway, trusting in God to show you the way. He will take care of us when the roads get hazardous. “Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble,” Proverbs 3:23. God will lead us to eternal life and when we reach our final destination we’ll hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”

“The road may be rough, the journey may be tough and the experience may be bitter, but they are stepping stones to our future thrones.” ― Bamigboye Olurotimi