Monday, December 06, 2021

Devotional 12-6-21

 The Bridge IS Out! The Bridge IS Out!

Psalm 43: 3-6 

3O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. 4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.

The bridge is out! The bridge is out! This conjures up images of an old western when one of the townsfolk is running or racing on a horse towards the train that is barreling towards them > headed for a ravine where…of course – the bridge is out. A bridge built to get from here to there, and now it’s gone. A bridge is defined by Webster as a structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle. During my early college days in the 1980s, I worked in a one-hour photo lab. While there I processed negatives brought in by construction workers and made prints of the new bridge being built at 31st Street in Huntington. It was going to link Proctorville, Ohio to Huntington, West Virginia. Without having to go all the way to 6th Street or 17th Street West or Point Pleasant, people would be able to move across the river – to eat, shop, visit relatives, or go to work with greater ease. When my parents moved back to the area following Dad’s retirement, they settled in Ohio. This new bridge gave us wonderful access to each other.

We too can be a bridge. In the Psalm passage we hear words like “lead” and “bring.” People come to our churches – leaving the place where they are, physically and emotionally, and look to us to be the human structure along a pathway to a new place. What will they find? Love? Caring? Understanding? Acceptance? Or will they run away yelling, “The bridge is out!”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, put us along the path where you need us to be and help us to be strong and supportive and the link that brings others to you. Amen.

Steve Matthews

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