Bridge

I was watching one of those Alaska shows the other night on Nat Geo (The National Geographic Channel). Some guy was trying to build a log bridge across a creek. The creek wasn't your typical slow, meandering waterway. This creek was filled with rapidly flowing ice water. And it was deep.

Prior to his decision to build this bridge he always had to remove all of his clothes, throw them across the creek first, and then wade through the ice water . . . the belly-deep ice water. It wouldn't take ME too many hours of deliberation before I would consider building a bridge. One dip would do it.

It took him all day to chop down a tree or two and cut them into pieces before he could simply just walk across the creek on his new wooden bridge. He felt good about his accomplishment.

What an idiot. He was smart for building the bridge but a fool for not building it sooner.

I drive across many bridges on my way to work. I never really think about them. I never think about all the hours of labor spent to make my morning commute a little easier. I never think about it at all. And that's the problem with us humans. We never think about such things.

For example, I have been told that, once you tour a meat processing plant, you will never eat hot dogs again. That may be true. I've never toured a meat processing plant. I like to eat hot dogs. But maybe, if I really knew what went into making them, I would never even want to touch the things.

There are some bridges where we have to pay a toll, a price, to cross the bridge. The Mackinac Bridge is one of those. Each summer when we go to our farm in Michigan we stop at the toll booth before we cross the bridge and pay money to use it. We actually pay a toll on nearly every bridge we cross. It's just that most of those costs come from taxes.

We who call ourselves Christians don't really spend a lot of time thinking about our sin. The things we do during any given day, whether they are God-honoring or not, don't really matter to us most of the time. We just want to get through our day. We just want to "walk across the river." We don't really think about how our "bridge" to heaven was built. We just want to get there.

Perhaps if we each had to get scourged before we got there we'd begin to understand. Perhaps if someone pounded some railroad spikes through our hands and into a tree we'd begin to get the picture. Perhaps.

Jesus has already built a bridge for us. He knew exactly what it was going to cost before it was built. And He paid the price for its construction . . .  with His life.

The next time I cross a bridge in my travels, I think I will stop and examine it. Take a look at its foundation. Check out the size of the beams. Maybe I should call up the construction company as ask them what it was like to build that bridge. But I probably won't. I'll just drive right on over to the other side.

What would we do if we had no bridges? Many of us would have to move, including me! But we DO have bridges. And we DO have an eternal bridge, in Jesus Christ. HE is our bridge to heaven. But what about the toll for crossing the bridge? Who is going to pay that? Already paid. Paid in full.

I'm going to thank Him in my prayers today for what He has done to aid my travels, in this life and in the next, Won't you please join me? Thank you! :)

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all," - 1 Timothy 2:1-6

The Bridge