On Night's Road

On night’s road I travel, looking into what seems to be an infinite expanse of mystery.  What is beyond the scope of my perception?  I cannot know, it rests beyond my capacity to apprehend.  Long stretches are accompanied by solitude, with only a few head lights breaking in and offering company along the way.  Are those trees lining the sides of the road?  It could be a field, producing a bounty of corn nearly ready for harvest.  

I love traveling in the night.  There is something of mystique and possibility wrapped within its roads.  Daytime travel is filled with sights, sounds, and affirmations.  The daytime road offers a full perspective of my surroundings, but it effaces the mystery.  In the daytime I can see the fields, observe the trees, embrace the clouds, and recognize the rush of cars flooding the roads.  The daytime sun exposes the entire scene, all options are available to me.  I look to the right and see the cow grazing in the field.  On my left, a fence; post after post whips past my sight.

Suddenly it happens, I nearly miss my exit.  It seems to alway happen in the daytime.  So much to see, so many options to ponder, so much diversion to capture my imagination.  It seldom occurs in the night.  The unknown of the night holds my eyes to the road before me.  All that I can know are the parallel white and yellow lines just past my engine.  In the night I acknowledge the vast possibilities, but am grounded by the present realities.  I must embrace what I cannot see, and trust in the one who does not share my limited perception.  

In the light of day or the dark of night, God is my keeper.  He holds me in his hands.  He sees the road ahead, the detours and the fast lanes, the potholes, and the smooth roads.  In my arrogance, I travel my own way, trust my internal GPS, live out of my subjective impulses.  But, it is not long before I needfully cry “help, I’m lost”.  It is then that he calls me back beckoning,  “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me”.  

On night’s road I travel, trusting in the one who holds the infinite expanse of mystery in the palm of his mighty hand.  I am safe when I am here.