Transfixed

(Mountains Part 3) Driving mountain roads is either thrill or fright. Switchbacks and curves that go so long you feel like you’ve circled the mountain, grades that either feel like you’re climbing to the sky or streaking down to the valley. They definitely keep ones gaze fixed on the road (and the mountainside inches away or the edge that plunges downward). I love them.

Curves slow you down, there’s not much speeding to be done when the sign has a squiggly line and 20mph. And when straightaways come into view, the sensation of tension melting away til the next curve is most welcome. Straightaways that have tiny gas stations with ice machines out front. Fruit stands with bear carvings. Shops with rusty pails and signs that read ‘Firefly Front Porch – vintage and antique – sit a spell’.

That’s what we need to do – sit a spell. Time slows on out-of-the-way mountain roads. Wildflower fields, freshly plowed rows of vegetables growing, rusty cars with sunflowers popping out of them. Signs for Barbeque ahead – best around, come on in. This is my happy place.

For mountain people sea breezes and sand between their toes might be their longing. We all need our happy place now and then – but that’s not life. While mountain road driving requires eyes watching the yellow lines – life requires eyes looking to God.

We don’t know what’s around the next curve – flash floods, cancer, job loss, love loss. Yet God is never taken by surprise. And while we may wonder why He let the heartache happen, the only way through life’s difficult roads is this: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2Corinthians 4:18 BSB)

One afternoon after a curvy drive, I sat outside looking and listening. At first a gentle breeze tousled my hair, then trees swayed all at once. Leaves and limbs moving in rhythm and silencing all else except their rustling. Birds overhead caught the draft and soared. My eyes were captivated by all creation around me. Soon everything stilled and a faraway rumble and flash of lightening transfixed my gaze.

When we don’t know how to ‘fix the mess’, can’t stop the tears, don’t want to face the hard stuff, this is where Jesus directs: “But my eyes are fixed on You, O GOD the Lord. In You I seek refuge; do not leave my soul defenseless.” (Psalm 141:7 BSB) Our soul is never defenseless. Our refuge from the storms of life is our God.

We must not fix our eyes on what we see. Whatever our eyes see right now is temporary. He is working a mystery we cannot fathom. We can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel or the ever-after of heaven. But our soul can rest assured that, better than a temporary straightaway on a curvy road, our forever has a lot more for us than country fruit stands and barbeque.