Christian Devotional-Stories and Bible verses about the presence of God in our lives

Leaving The World Behind

“Better test the motor,” my grandfather says…

I hear his feet go quickly down the stairs to the basement…

Then his heavier tread, as he struggles back up the stairs, lugging the old outboard motor with him.

I am only six years old, but I know why he is testing the motor…

We’re going to the lake…

Leaving the world behind

That was a week ago…

Now in the back seat of the car, I watch as the scene along the road changes…

Towns and gas stations and roadside diners disappear…

Replaced by fields…

Then  the fields vanish…

Replaced by an ancient pine forest.

The car slows.

The blinker clicks as my grandfather signals a left turn.

We are off the highway, driving down a two-lane road…

Moving deeper and deeper into the forest…

Leaving the world behind …

The slight grade becomes steep.

Up we go…till the car crests the rise…

The front end tilting down until finally I see it spreading out below us…

The lake.

We are leaving the world behind …

Every August, my grandfather goes out on that lake and like Ahab searching for the great white whale, casts his line for the Mythical Muskie…

“Be careful when we bring him into the boat,” my grandfather says, confident this will be the year he catches a Muskie…

“Muskie have teeth.  They bite.”

I picture a Muskie thrashing in the bottom of the boat…

His jaws snapping shut on a six-year-old hand.

I soon learn I don’t need to worry…

We catch plenty of Bass and Perch and Northern Pike …but no Muskies.

I relax in the boat…

Cast my line into the water…

 And listen…

To the waves against the side of the boat…

To the wind in the trees of a nearby island…

To the honks of a flock of geese as they fly overhead…

 Leaving the world behind …

Leaving the world behind was easy when I was six years old.

Leaving the world behind is so much more difficult now…

I carry the world and its worries in my mind and my heart wherever I go.

If only I could remember the words of Jesus …

…you don’t belong to the world. I have chosen you to leave the world behind…  John 15:19

Then I would know his peace…

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:7

I would remember his assurance…

…In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

And the promise of God…

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

And I would know that one day it will be easy to leave the world behind.

Note: This post first appeared on June 19, 2015.  I repeat it once a year for the childhood memories it brings from the past, and the promise it proclaims about the future.

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