Wife-swopping!!!

Apologies to those who are regular visitors to my blog, but I have been in France for the past three weeks, and this is the first opportunity I have had to access the internet!   We should be here for at least a week, so expect a couple more posts over the next few days!   Okay, the heading is meant to be an eye-catcher - but do read on before coming to any conclusion about my marital happiness!!

This year, I swopped my wife!! Well, not in the sense that I took on another women in her place, but in the sense that, after many years of having her as my "wife-nav", I finally dragged myself into the 21st century and purchased a sat-nav!  It's been a bit of a mixed blessing, to be honest, but we're beginning to get to grips with it.  Mind you, I still like to have my wee wife beside me with a good old-fashioned paper map on her lap - just to be on the safe side!

However, I have discovered that my sat-nav has a number of important spiritual truths to teach me,guidance certainly in the area of guidance. Already we have discovered that we are being directed along roads that we wouldn't have chosen ourselves.  The amazing thing is that, by whatever route the sat-nav takes us, we do arrive at our final destination. 

The life of the disciple of Jesus can be a bit like that!  Sometimes the Lord takes us along paths that we would never have chosen if left entirely to our own devices.  Yet how many can testify to His wisdom as the destination is reached and, if it isn't the one towards which we thought we were heading, it turns out to be far superior?  Of course, there is a reason for all of this.  The sat-nav can be programmed to look out for hold-ups on the route, and to quickly compute an alternative.  Father God, from His vantage point of eternity, sees my whole life - and, indeed, the whole of time - spread out before Him.  In His eternal present, He is aware of the pitfalls that are in my future, and directs my path to avoid them.  Of course, just as we are perfectly capable of ignoring the instructions that emanate from the sat-nav, so I am all too capable of ignoring the guidance that comes from my heavenly Father.  The results are similar - and I am the one who loses out!