Friday, August 19, 2011

Darkness will come. Are your ready? Isaiah 59

We left Yellowstone and drove over the most beautiful mountains on our way to Billings Montana.   It was a beautiful drive.  We saw several herds of bison probably numbering more than 1,000 in total number.  The mountain scenery was awesome.  We believed that we would arrive in Billings and make an early evening of it.  What a surprise when we stopped at a Hampton Inn and heard that there wouldn't be a room to be found within 50 miles of Billings!  Seems the Montana State Fair and the clean up of an oil spill on the Yellowstone River had every room filled, perhaps for weeks to come.  Good for innkeepers but bad for us.  We went back up the road about 15 miles and stopped at a Best Western to  check on the veracity of the first message.  We were again greeted with the bad news, but this time we spoke to a "can do" clerk who was determined to find us a "room for the night".  She did, 60 miles down the road, but we were grateful for her very generous help.  Today we discovered that we were within 15 minutes of the Little Big Horn National Park and spent a great morning learning more about the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Wasn't that clever how God used our inconvenience to land us another blessing?  And what a lovely person we meet who went out of her way to help us when we were far from home.  there is a sermon there about caring for the alien, the stranger in a foreign land, but that will  be for another day.

We could have avoided our difficulty if we had spent a little more time planning where we would be on that evening, but we trusted in blind luck.....big mistake.  We were like the sinner that Isaiah speaks of in Chapter 59: "we look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.  Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes.  At midday we stumble as if it were twilight."  Many folks are going through life without thinking about where they are going to be at the end of the day and we all should know that the end of the day is coming.  We may not know how many hours, days and years we have before night comes, but night is coming.  Choosing to ignore the reality of the coming night will not save us from the darkness that is on the way.  Where will we lay our heads at that moment?  God says that he has a wonderful place prepared for us.  A place that knows no darkness.  A place where joy is boundless.  All that it takes to enjoy that place is a little pre-planning, a little preparation; all the worry is gone replaced by the knowledge that the great innkeeper has reserved a spectacular 5 star place for us when the time to rest has come.

Hope you have made your reservation.  If not, I'd be glad to help you with the toll free number that will give you a direct connection to the Master scheduler.

We will be away for a few more days.  Hope to see the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and maybe a little more of God's wonderful creation.  We will be in church Sunday morning enjoying worship and a word from the Lord, hope you will be too.  See you soon!  God bless you!

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