The Orienting Point
It’s 6:38 p.m. Supper is over, and the kitchen is clean. I’ve come out to the porch to sit and soak in the last of this day. In just a few short weeks, it will be dark by this time of evening. For now though, the light lingers and birds gather at the feeder for their final meal of corn and sunflower seeds before going to roost. Cars still hum this way and that along the road across the way. A basketball slaps the concrete at a nearby park like a metronome keeping the rhythm of evensong.
Ever so slowly, the vibrant colors of day mellow into a gray-blue dusk. Crisp lines etched earlier in the day blur against the approaching half light. Here and there signs of autumn have appeared. Red and yellow leaves sparsely dot the trees, a foretaste of what I hope will be a colorful fall display. Mums bloom in the herb garden.
As the hectic pace of this day ebbs away, I become aware of the transition happening all around me. Day to night, summer to fall, second to minute to hour. Weeks to months to years. One season passing into the next. Transition is inevitable and perpetual. Though we may not see it, everything is constantly shifting.
“For I am the Lord, I change not.”
This world seems to be spinning out of control. Do you feel it too? In the last five years, the rate at which the world has changed leaves me feeling dizzy and helpless. Without something constant to hold onto, I’m tossed about to and fro. My sense of direction becomes skewed.
A couple of weeks ago, we visited a local playground with the grandchildren. They thought it would be fun to spin Nana and Gigi on the merry-go-round. The landscape around me whizzed in a blur. I felt like my eyeballs were rolling around in my head. Did I mention I’m prone to motion sickness? What was I thinking?! Turned out the remedy was to fix my eyes on my grandson’s face. When I did, the woozy feeling left me.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
The landscape of my life may shift and become unfamiliar throwing off my sense of direction. When I feel disoriented by the chaos happening around me, Jesus is my orienting point. The compass that points true north. From before the beginning, God had a plan. As the Aleph and the Tav, the Beginning and the End, He isn’t caught off guard by the happenings in this world. He who set the world into motion and hung the stars in the heavens, is able to guide me and keep me in this topsy turvy world.
When I fix my eyes on Jesus, the world may keep spinning, but my heart is stilled.