Traveling Unfamiliar Roads

By Virginia Smith

At times the road we travel in this life seems to lead to some pretty strange places.  I can get a bit anxious at times, wondering where God is leading me.  Then I remember.  He paved the road.  He knows every inch.

When my kids were younger, I got on a walking kick.  I power-walked the same route through my neighborhood every day, and I used the time to pray.  One beautiful sunny morning as I passed blooming spring flowers and prayed for my children and my husband, I had the strangest urge.  At the intersection where I always turned right, it occurred to me that I could turn left instead.  No reason really, just a feeling that wouldn’t go away.  The break in my routine felt like the right thing to do, so I did.  A couple of blocks later, I decided to turn down an unfamiliar street.  I didn’t know where it would lead, but it seemed like a nice street.  After a few blocks, I turned up yet another unfamiliar street that just felt right.  A thought occurred to me and I whispered, “Lord, are You telling me to turn down this street?”

I took one more turn, and suddenly I knew why I was being led on this detour.  About halfway down the block, I saw two boys round a corner and head toward me on the sidewalk.  I said, “Aha!  Now I know why you sent me down here, Father.”  It was my twelve-year-old son and his best friend, who were supposed to be in school.  When they caught sight of me they both stopped dead in their tracks with their mouths hanging open.  Of course I marched them right back to school and into the principal’s office.  They both got after-school detention for cutting class.  The principal checked my son’s attendance record, and it turned out this was the first time he’d missed a class all year.  The man shook his head and said, “What rotten luck, to get caught his very first time.”  I just laughed.  I knew luck had nothing to do with it.

When the landscape around me is unfamiliar and I wonder where the Lord is leading me, I recall that incident.  There’s no reason to be anxious about unfamiliar roads.  God knows them.  He really does direct our steps.

PRAYER: Lord, open my ears to hear You as You direct my steps today.

“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it…” Isaiah 30:21a KJV.

Today’s devotion is by Virginia Smith, an energetic speaker and the award-winning author of twelve inspirational novels, including Stuck in the Middle and the upcoming Third Time’s a Charm.  www.virginiasmith.org