2/8/09 Our little navigator...

For Christmas, my mother gave Hubby and me one of those GPS navigation thingies for our car. It has quickly turned into that one item that I don't know how I lived without. We have affectionately dubbed it the "nagigator," as her slurred speech is constantly interrupting our car conversations: "Turn right in 1 mile...turn right in .8 miles...turn right in .6 miles..." and on and on and on. Nevertheless, we love her.

Today we took advantage of the down time between training schools and went on a day trip to a little bay front town in our area.

After a lovely afternoon exploring the town, we programmed "Home" into our GPS and got back on the highway to head there. Not even five minutes into our journey, our cruising speed was interrupted by the heart-stopping sight of flashing red and blue lights. Fortunately for us, it was not something that we (ok...I) had done. The entire highway was shut down, and our only guess as to why was the giant billows of smoke that were obstructing the perfectly clear day. (We found out later that it was a wild fire.)

We U-turned as we were directed by the police, stopped on the shoulder of the highway, and pulled out our trusty GPS to reroute us home. Our navigator confidently took this change of direction in stride, only pausing for an instant to "recalculate the route." Then our dependable navigator put us right back on track towards home.

As soon as I knew we were safe and headed in the right direction, I began thinking about how poetic the situation actually was. We were headed straight towards a fire at 70 miles per hour. Once our eyes actually saw the huge flames roaring across the highway in front of us, we realized how dangerous this was. We became slightly disoriented and frustrated with all of our attempts to "escape" the fire, finding road blocks all along the way to us trying to get home. It was our little navigator that kept us on course and got us home without once getting lost.

It seems so simple. We are all speeding towards whatever flames are facing us in our lives. There is only destruction there. We need to listen to the little navigator in our car, telling us in precise detail how to turn around and get us home. It will never fail.

"God is fair and just; he corrects the misdirected, sends them in the right direction. He gives the rejects his hand, and leads them step by step. From now on every road you travel will take you to God. Follow the Covenant signs; read the charted directions." -Psalm 25:8-10 (The Message)