As I looked ahead at the long stretch of road in front of me, my eyes focused on what looked to be an approaching tornado! I gasped and clinched the steering wheel.
A couple hours before I had been driving on the long stretch of interstate between Amarillo and Oklahoma City. For hours I had listened to news reports about the approaching severe weather back home in Oklahoma. Threats of tornadoes turned into live coverage of tornadoes on the ground. It seemed as though I was driving straight toward this devasting storm.
I had stopped and hoped my long dinner had allowed enough time to pass to keep me out of it all. After dinner I had sat in my car watching live coverage of the damage until I felt it was safe enough for me to get back on the road. A few miles had passed when a friend called me. I was happy to have a conversation to help pass the time and get my mind off the weather, Suddenly I stopped talking, I couldn’t even breathe. My eyes had locked onto an image of a tornado just ahead of me. I froze!
Then I saw it. I saw the cross. I closed my eyes tightly and reopened them to realize that it wasn’t a tornado after all! It was the shadow of a local church’s giant cross! It stretched up into the night sky with such force. I wasn’t in danger; I was just distracted.
You see, for hours all I had been thinking and hearing about was tornadoes. Of course, that’s the first place my mind went when I saw the image in the sky. What if I had been thinking about the cross? Or honestly, anything other than tornadoes? I believe I would have seen the cross. What a reminder to capture my thoughts and focus them on Christ and the positive things around me he has trusted me with.
What are you thinking about today? What image could it be creating that’s false? What if we looked ahead with Jesus on our minds, awaiting the cross? A cross that’s a reminder we have been rescued.
Don’t be like me, single mom! Spend your thoughts on something meaningful and good, so that when you look ahead your brain doesn’t insert danger where hope is supposed to be!
Paul reminded the Philippian church this when he wrote:
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (Philippians 4:8)
