Follow Me!

Enfin!  Un autre camping avec le connexion Wi-fi!  Or, to put it another way, a camp-site with a wi-fi connection, at last!  Actually, we are sited out of range of the signal, but at least I cna go back and forward to recharge my laptop battery more easily here than at McDonald's!

We're actually at our final stop before making our way to Dunkerque, and the ferry back to the U.K.  During the past weeks, wev've been continuing to get used to the wonders of our new satellite navigation system with the French voice of Sébastien.  We don't always understand every word that this computerised voice utters, but at least the French pronunciations are a great deal better than those provided by the English-language voices!

Of course, at the end of the day, all of the sat-nav systems (and even wife-nav!), directions, and maps, don't match up to the truly personal touch. It was many years ago, when our children were still coming on holiday with us.  We were in the Belgian city of Brussels, looking for the address of a Christian evangelistic organisation with whose workers we had arranged to spend the night.  In those pre-Euro days, we only had one Belgian coin left over from a previous holiday.  I used it to telephone – but the person who answered didn’t speak any English, and my French was still little better than schoolboy level!

It was now dark; we were in a strange city; the children were tired; my wife was concerned (as was I – but I tried not to show it!); we now had no local currency at all; and everyone from whom I tried to get directions spoke only French, or maybe it was Flemish.  Then, as we drove down a particular residential road, I noticed a younger man about to get into the car in his driveway.  I stopped our car, and went over to him and, in my halting French asked if he could direct us, in English please, to the address that I had written down.  He replied with just two words in the English language: “Follow me!”  Within less than twenty minutes, we were at the correct address.  We had found someone who knew the way, and who could guide us, safely, to our destination.

Everyone, I suspect, wants to follow someone who already knows the way.  That knowledge provides the follower with assurance that, whatever pitfalls or diversions are met, the destination will, indeed, be safely reached.  The early disciples of Jesus of Nazareth were first known as followers of “the Way” – they believed that, in Him, they had found One Who knew what He was doing, and where He was going.  So they followed Him, as millions continue to do today – many of them suffering greatly, but certain that His “Follow Me!” is an invitation that is worth accepting.

Have you heard His voice, and accepted that invitation?