"Is there a Richard Adam Reilly in the car?"
With those words,
the Customs and Border Protection Officer cast a pall over the car.
Under sunny skies which promised pleasant driving, my wife and I had
journeyed with my eldest son and our beautiful daughter-in-law. We were
to spend four days of driving leisurely through Michigan, Illinois,
Minnesota, and North Dakota, USA, as we made our way back to Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, from Ontario, Canada. However, all that was now hanging in
the balance barely two hours into the trek, at Port Huron, Michigan,
USA.
After we had spent forty-five minutes in line after crossing
the Blue Water Bridge, the officer had taken our passports and asked all
the usual questions: "Where are you going?" "How long will you be?" "Do
you have anything to declare?" Then, the unsmiling agent commented,
"Uh-oh. We have a troublemaker." My first thought was that my son's
passport was out of date, but it was not that. "This passport is not
valid," she coolly commented. "It hasn't been signed." Well, that didn't
seem too bad, or was it?
The officer continued, "Here's what you
need to do. To make this passport valid, it needs to be signed in
Canada. You're going to have to turn around, cross back into Canada, and
sign the passport there. Then you can return over the bridge and get
back in line."
The car was silent as we mulled over this
unexpected and unwanted detour. I could feel the rising tension as we
began to formulate ways to make Adam's life miserable. It was then that
the officer leaned in and said, "Just kidding!" With a friendly smirk.
"Please sign the passport, Adam, and enjoy your trip."
As I've
reflected on our stops at the border this summer, it dawned on me that
God never has to ask those "border" questions. He knows where we've
been, what we've been doing - even where we are going and what we are
going to do.
Psalm 139:2-4 "You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my
lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my
tongue you know it completely, O Lord." (NIV)
I am known. And not
just the "me" everyone sees, but the real me: the "me" who is smiling on
the outside, but hurting inside; the "me" who appears courageous even
when terrified within-- like when killing a spider--yech! In every
situation in which we find ourselves embroiled, there is a God Who knows
us and our circumstances even better than we know ourselves, and He
cares by entering into our lives, promising, "When you pass through the
waters, I will be with you." (Isaiah 43:2a NIV)
Even more, when
we cross from this life to the next, our way has been secured by that
very same God, through His Son Jesus Christ, Whose signature is our
guarantee. No worries of delays or detours need trouble us, as He will
meet us at the border and welcome us home.
Prayer: Father, Your
love really is too lofty for us to understand, so we simply open our
hearts to receive it. May our lips and our lives always declare it.
Thank You, Jesus, for Your blood shed on the cross, and for the promise
and assurance of new life. Help us to live each day in such a way that
our journey will be so filled with Your presence that we might reflect
Your light into the world around us. Amen.
Gary Reilly
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Thanks to
PresbyCan Daily Devotional
