Had a busy day but not so busy I didn’t notice the beautiful deep blue fall sky. Took oldest sister-in-law to Franklin, Georgia, to watch the Heard County High School homecoming parade. Her grandson is on the football team and her daughter is a cheerleader coach. The drive to Franklin was so pretty. The trees on the sides of the highway were dancing in the sun beaming down through the fall leaves. Made me think of a child’s kaleidoscope turning round and round with nature’s earth colors in wondrous patterns.

After supper Penelope and I sat in the swing and watched the sunset play out tonight with pale shades of turquoise and gold. Mother Nature’s pageantry was subdued in its painting but wondrous in the colorings of the horizon. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and waked up the luminious waxing crescent moon to pin him in the sky. I could see a few stars twinkling in the night sky, silvery light points on the purple night sky canopy. A honking V of geese flew over as a symphony of twilight singing their journeys’ song tracks. A passing freight train blew its whistle loudly to proclaim the day’s end.

Heard the most glorious train whistle last night as I lay in bed. Now that the trees are shedding their leaves the train’s whistle is loud and clear, echoing down the track in the night’s darkness. The train’s mournful whistle sounded like ocean waves, its loud “woo-woo” building up in intensity, then softening down. You could hear the undulations of the sound waves as they followed the cold metal train rail click-clacks down the tracks, echoing back in song. The train’s wheels’ hisses and squeaks added percussion to the train’s lonely symphony. Train whistles just sound differently in the fall. The whistles are lonesome and forlorn. I love to hear the trains pass by late at night. The train’s music is mysterious and melodious. I love listening to their symphonies!

As I lay in bed I was thinking how life is like a train ride. We ride the train tracks all our lives and blow our own whistles at different junctures. We’re born on our tracks and our railcars are hitched to our parents’ engines. We don’t choose our journeys at the beginning, we ride the rails our parents provide. As we grow up, we ride the switch tracks and make our own decisions to stop and enjoy the scenery that travels by or we ride the fast track, never slowing down to enjoy the wonders of the world. We travel with other passengers and all head for the same destinations. But the journey with God is the most important. Those that don’t believe will take a side track and get off somewhere along the journey. Those riding with God as their engineer are headed to eternal life in heaven.

Be sure your train is headed in the right direction. Once you arrive at the station it’s too late to go back and change routes. A train follows a predetermined track and stays on course till it reaches its destination. The train of our faith will stop and blow its whistle at many stations and we have to decide whether to continue our journey or disembark from the train. No one said our spiritual journey would be easy. We have to trust God as our engineer. Our belief in God and our thanksgiving for his love will help us reach our heavenly destination.

We need to travel with God, letting him help us with our decisions and our destinations. Our journey of faith is a train ride with God. We can stay on the correct rails or get off on a side track where our faith is tested. No one said the journey would not be without trials and tribulations. The most important part of a train is the engine that pulls the cars. We need to let God be our spiritual engine. God’s train is bound for glory. As Woodie Guthrie sang, “This train is bound for glory… Don’t ride nothing but the righteous an’ the holy. This train is bound for glory. Don’t carry nothing but the righteous and the holy.”

We need to need to hook our lives to God’s engine, blowing our whistles of faith loud and long, following the rails God has chosen for us. God’s train is bound for glory. Get on board!

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.” — Corrie Ten Boom