God’s Panorama

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38‭-‬39 ESV

I love the vast panorama from the mountain ridges as we travel from North Carolina into Virginia. It gives us a revelation of astonishing beauty both where we’ve been and also where we are going. Then in it is gone and we simply move in between the folds of the hills.

In life all of us sometimes feel lost or trapped in the demands the stress and painful situations around us. They block our view until God brings us up high along the eternal ridge-line of His love. There with the apostle Paul we get a glimpse of that amazing love of Jesus Christ that refreshes our faith. There we gain the perspective from the overlook and are readied by faith to finish the journey.

Where is Your Hope?

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?        Psalm 27:1 NKJV

The drowning man was flailing in the waves just 100 yards from the beach. Two men ran up to the shoreline. The first on the scene was a business man who while passing by had heard the shouts and seeing the man going under he threw out 50 yards of line and shouted to the man, “that’s all I can afford. Swim for it!” The second man on the beach that day happened to be a politician listening to the commotion. He grandly stepped up with a smirk and threw 1000 yards of line toward the drowning man who was now going under for the second time. Then he dropped the rope and walked away shouting, “Somebody ought to grab that rope!”

Just as the man began to sink for the third time, Jesus came walking out on the waves, took the drowning man by the hand and whispered, “It is I, don’t be afraid!”

beach during daylight

Photo by Daniel Jurin on Pexels.com

Where is your hope today? Is it in your past success? Is your hope in what others think about you or what money you have in the bank? The Bible tells us that the only thing we can hold onto when everything and everyone is failing is our faith in Jesus Christ.