As I headed out for a morning run on the last day of July, the country of Connecticut was sunny and warming up. I was running on a trail in the woods that led on for miles. I had regularly accessed that trail directly behind our leased home for the past four years. The trail led up to a scenic high point where I viewed sweeping vistas of hills covered with deciduous trees that reached full leaf in mid-summer. Though the trail wasn’t on designated public land, I had not seen No Trespassing signs or anybody on it. I considered running on it to be God’s blessing to me.
“Faithful Journey” watercolor by Ann Jackson
Running back home from the viewpoint, I saw a man near the trail ahead. Since I thought he might be the landowner and felt I might be trespassing, I stopped and crouched down behind a small tree. He saw me and asked me why I was crouching. I replied that I thought I might be on his land. He answered that I was, and he didn’t want me to run there anymore. I ran home and finished packing our Subaru wagon for our cross-country move the next day. I marveled that the Lord had allowed me to run on that wonderful trail hundreds of times during the entire time we lived there, without hindrance, till the last day before we moved. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16b).
I was in the U.S. Navy then, and I had been issued orders to report to Naval Station Everett, WA. In the military, orders are cut to reassign the service member to a new duty station. These orders are called a permanent change of station. There will come a day when time’s up, and it’s moving day for each of us. When our allotted days on earth are done, each of us will move. Where will you go then: up or down?
The Navy paid for our move, but I set it up. The movers had taken our household goods and were to deliver them in ten days to our new home in Marysville, WA. I had contracted with a company out of New York to transport my Honda since my wife wanted me to drive her and our son. Our goal was to get to our new home in time to meet the movers so that they would not put our goods into storage.
As we drove across north Indiana, our car began knocking. By God’s grace, we pulled off the freeway 15 miles east of Chicago at Portage, Indiana. Portage means carrying. At a barbershop, I asked for a good mechanic. I was directed to Jeff, whose advice when I called around 6 PM, was to get a motel, and he assured us he would check our car at 8 AM the next day. Then Jeff quickly diagnosed the problem: the drive shaft. One of its three U-joints was locked in one direction, and another was binding. Subaru only sold the entire drive shaft at a cost approaching $2,000. Jeff sent the driveshaft to a driveshaft specialist, Lance, who found another specialist in Illinois who had machined five such Subaru driveshaft U-joints. Lance’s father drove over to pick up three of them. They renewed our driveshaft and installed it on our car that day—all for $200! Jeff and his wife are Christians. Through their kindness and expertise, the Lord Jesus Christ was carrying us by His grace.
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you (Isaiah 46:4).
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Your driveshaft has “you” joints that won’t allow you into Heaven. You can’t get to Heaven by your own power or efforts. You need grace drive. Only Jesus Christ has that. He offers it free to everyone who comes to Him. He said, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37). Will you come to Jesus and receive His grace that will drive you to be at home with the Lord?
By God’s grace, we arrived at our new home safely and in time to meet the moving van. However, my Honda didn’t arrive. It was still sitting in the lot where I had parked it to be picked up in CT. The NY company whom I had already paid $1065 to transport it, never answered their phone or returned my calls. My wife and I prayed and asked others to pray. I saw a Navy lawyer who wrote a letter to them on my behalf. My Honda was held hostage, but my legal advocate had my back. About a month after we left CT, another trucker delivered my car to Bellevue. We paid a $25 storage fee. Our credit card company paid the transportation fee of about $700 and recouped my initial payment to the fraudulent NY company. By His grace, Christ got my transportation to me in my new duty station.
Like my Honda, each of us was held hostage by Satan because of our sins.
But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2:1b-2 NASB).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Advocate for He died in place of everyone who trusts in Him. Jesus Christ is
He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification (Romans 4:25 NASB).
For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will guide us upon death
(Psalm 48:14 NASB, literal).
If you have come to Christ and received Him, He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will guide you at the time of your death and drive you by His grace to Heaven. There He will be your Advocate with the Father, and you will be welcomed to your new eternal home.
(Bible verses are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.)
Tom Giesecke (Sonrise Magazine Editor) Author. Grew up in Olympia, WA, where he received Christ at age 15. He graduated from Davidson College, NC, and Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. After his medical internship at the National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, MD, he trained and served as a U.S. Navy Flight Surgeon for four years. Following residency training, he served thousands of people as a Board-certified Family Physician for more than thirty-five years. Learning of God’s love motivates Tom to daily search the Scriptures for more. Tom has led Bible studies for many years and enjoys sharing “the word of God, and recently publishing a book (find in the Sonrise Bookstore and Amazon) on the grace of God: Gracious Goodness.” Reach Tom at tomgiesecke@comcast.net
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