Advent 15---Blue Ridge, the Third Parallel

[HKHaugan]

The third part of the Blue Ridge parallel was building an accessible highway through the mountains. Here is where the vision and the planning became a reality. Here is where the idea, the organizing for the idea, the gathering of all the skills and equipment necessary actualized the idea. Here is where the idea became a hands-on day-to-day combination of all the administrative, leadership, engineering, supervising and specific tasks. Everything from project management to that guy with axe in his hands went to work and foot-by-foot, inch-by-inch over 400 plus miles of two lane accessible road became a reality.

The Blue Ridge wilderness was full of forests, valleys and stone obstacles that had to be cleared, reshaped and leveled while not removing the basic beauty of the vista He created. God’s idea, His plan for the recovery of each human heart, involves much the same process. He is building a highway, an accessible highway back to Himself. He is connecting the peaks of our hearts, establishing ridges from each to Himself and to one another.

God’s highway, Jesus, removes the darkness of sin, gives accessibility to the peaks and across the ridges. The shadows of uncertainty and fear are removed but what is more significant is that the Way of God, Jesus His Son, has illuminated the entire landscape and given the vision. “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned (Is.9:1-2 NIV).”

The roadblocks between peaks and along the ridges are the strongholds that the heart builds apart from God to protect itself but The Way, Jesus, brings the Holy Spirit to demolish strongholds (see 2Cor.10:4-5 for definition and and the 'how to'), brings repentance to level the paths and comes forgiveness to brighten the vista.

Jesus then becomes our single and perfect stronghold.

Isaiah verbalized that vision 700 years before Jesus came, “There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It's for God's people exclusively—impossible to get lost on this road. Not even fools can get lost on it. No lions on this road, no dangerous wild animals—Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening. Only the redeemed will walk on it. The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night (Is.35:8-10 The Message).”

As Jesus walked the shores of plains of Galilee He marked the way to the Way since He was the Way. He paved the Way to God’s heart, then between our hearts and His through faith in Him and His Word, in the land of hearts (Israel), in the community of hearts (Jerusalem) and in the temple of the heart (our bodies). Today He is still building that spiritual road of faith through His grace and love. Wherever the heart peaks and the ridges of relationship are caught in the fog of sin with its spirits of pride, fear and uncertainty, Jesus sends His Holy Spirit as the path to the road of His light and the freedom and peace of His presence.

He has made an accessible highway available to every single heart and that highway is a personal highway of faith, of hope and of love. There is no end to the pictures of spiritual truth that come to light when His light is allowed to show the parallels that can become parables that make our personal desert arable. The Blue Ridge is but one of countless treasures the Lord provides when we let Him open our eyes to the never-ending vista of His self-offering.

This Advent it would be wonderful if anyone reading this would share a bit of the way the Lord has become the Way for you. What peaks have you had Him connect in your life? What ridges have been connected? What obstacles in the forests and valleys did you encounter that were removed? When did you begin to see the whole vista He had planned for you in this world?

This is the Fellowship called Kingdom’s Keys. Your testimony may just be the key for someone out there to see what they have never seen before. You might want to share it. May the Lord God continue to bless your Advent and for us together to look forward to His Great Return.