Last weekend, our family went camping for the first time. My husband and I had each been camping before, but we’d never been to the wilds since having kids. So, armed with all the camping gear some online list said we should have, and accompanied by some friends who knew more about camping than we did, we set out.
When we got to the state park, we were able to get two campsites that were close together. A short, winding trail of about twenty yards or so connected our sites. While my husband and I set up camp at our site, and our friends set up their tent at their site, our kids enjoyed running back and forth on the path. (We could see them the whole way.)
At one point, however, Lindsey missed a turn and continued straight on what did, indeed, look like a trail. The only problem was that it petered out and left her in the midst of some brambles, less than a yard from our campsite.
“Mommy?” she called, and I looked to see her peering out from in between the brambles and branches, not quite sure how she got there, and not sure how to get out.
“Sweetie, you went the wrong way,” I said. “Just back up. That’s right, turn around, and go—no, not that way—yes, that way. No, wait—never mind. I’ll come show you.”
I got up out of my brand new foldable camping chair and headed toward the trail to show her the way out by doing it myself. And as I did, I thought of how, on a far greater scale, Jesus did the same thing for us.
We had gotten ourselves into a mess, and we couldn’t get out. God had given us the law to show us the way, but we couldn’t follow it adequately. So Jesus came to personally show us.
He didn’t have to. He would have been completely justified in letting us remain stuck forever. After all, our sin is our own fault. But He didn’t. He came to lead us out, to make the impossible possible.
I felt fairly generous in getting out of my comfortable chair to help my daughter out of a mess of her own making. But how vastly more generous Jesus was in coming down from heaven to lead us to the Father!
Will you join me in praising Him?
Jesus, we praise you for Your infinite goodness, love, and mercy in coming to show us the way back. We acknowledge that it’s only through You that we can come back at all. Thank You, Lord, for showing us the way home. Amen.
Philippians 2:5-11—Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.