Printed from: https://www.cmf.org.uk/doctors/devotion/?id=devotion&day=22&month=4
Jesus said, 'I am the way...; no one comes to the Father, but by me'. John 14:6
At a mission hospital in Thailand, we found that a lot of the older rural patients were illiterate. For them it was no use having notices telling them where to find the Pathology Laboratory and the X-ray Department. At hospital committee we decided on a system of coloured arrows -- red ones for a blood test, yellow ones for a urine test, blue for an X-ray etc. These arrows were painted on the floor, and when in use they led to a rather comic, rather sad spectacle of aged Thai farmers walking, head down, following the arrows and hoping to reach their destination. We don't know how many heads banged together during this procedure!
Our goal is important, but so is the route by which we get there. Jesus tells us that our goal is our Heavenly Father, and that Jesus is himself our Way. His words were spoken to Thomas, who was both confused and irritated, but they remain true for us today. Throughout each day our journey continues, our destination an eternity of joy with God and an unclouded view of him. I'm not suggesting that we'll get there by the end of the day, but we can certainly get several steps nearer. And those steps are taken in Christ -- our WAY. We take the steps by faith -- ie knowing that he is with us, and keeping our eyes upon him, we follow his footsteps obediently. As we do this, the end and the means become one, so that we need only to concentrate on one thing -- staying with Jesus -- our WAY. He will take us to the Father -- no doubt about that. Our only worry is lest we wander off into our own way instead of his.
So we ask Jesus to keep us close to him today, and to whisper -- or shout if necessary (though he should not need to shout) -- a simple warning if at any moment we waver, or take a step off the road.
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year -
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'.
And he replied
'Go on into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God,
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a way'.*
M L Haskins
Further reading: Jn 14:1-11. Heb 10:19-23.
JT
*c Oxford University Press
