Markers!!

Set up signposts (markers) for yourself to mark your trip home. Get a good map. Study the road conditions. The road out is the road back. Jeremiah 31:21 from The Message

Sometimes I have occasion to watch movies which I have already seen for a second or third time. Invariably there is always something I missed the first time which stands out in the repeated viewing. Such was the case when I watched again the movie Heaven is for Real. The movie is the adaptation of a true story about a small town businessman, firefighter, and pastor, his wife and family who are struggling to make ends meet in a particularly hard year.

The couple’s young son, Colton, undergoes emergency surgery and makes a miraculous recovery. The parents are overjoyed at his recovery, but they are unprepared for what happens next. Colton claims that he has been to heaven and back and begins to describe Jesus and things he experienced there. Everyone is doubtful, but as Colton describes things he’s seen and people he has met which he couldn’t possibly know about unless it were true, he makes believers of his family and eventually many others.

The scene that was especially meaningful this time was set outside their home where Colton and a reporter were discussing why he liked heaven so much. Colton says, “Jesus has markers.” The reporter, as many of us would do, was puzzled at how Jesus could have markers for drawing in heaven. Colton laughs and says, “No, not those. Jesus has markers here as he points to each of his hands and here as he points to each of his feet.” We might refer to these as scars, but from the perspective of a young boy, they were markers.

We all have makers in our lives. While our pathways and viewpoints might differ, we all share the common process known as life’s journey. As we look back over our lives, no matter our age, there are markers there which are/were critical. We mark things such as life decisions, powerful moments that impacted us, or even big changes that we had to make for our career or family. Each of us can look back and reflect on these markers which have made our life what it is today.

What about spiritual markers? Can we look back over our lives and remember instances where there was a big change because of our walk with God? Many people in the Bible set up stones as markers so they could remember the places where God revealed himself to them, spoke to them, or restored them. Along our life path, I think setting markers where we’ve seen God working in and among us is one of the most powerful things to witness and remember.

There are so many instances that all of us can recall when we know that God has done a great work in our midst. For example, I know that there have been times when God protected me from what could have been a disastrous choice in my life, and as I look back, I know God did it! There are times when I considered my life to be a complete mess, but I watched in awe as God untangled the mess and brought beauty from the ashes.

It is said that Jesus carried His own cross for over 2000 feet along the winding route up the hill toward Calvary. In my mind, I picture markers He must have passed along this treacherous route. Markers such as the man who offered him water, those who mocked and jeered, the women who cried as he walked by, and the man who offered to help him carry his cross.

Markers come every day if we only pay attention to them. The story I read recently was a marker for me on forgiveness. The excerpt was about Corrie Ten Boom and her Dutch family who housed and helped Jews during the war. They were eventually discovered, arrested, and put in a prison camp where her father and sister died. Corrie survived and had a sense that God had called her to war torn Germany to share His power.

One evening during a speech she was giving, she saw a man approaching her. He was wearing a grey coat, but she saw him in the German uniform he had worn as a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp. She remembered him as one of the cruelest guards in the prison, but he was now extending his hand to her. He said, “Since Ravensbruck, I have become a Christian. I know God has forgiven me, but I need to hear from your lips this night. Will you forgive me? Corrie prayed to God for strength to grasp his hand, and as she prayed, God’s power flowed through her and she was able to forgive him.”

Jesus’ love is a forgiving love that loves the unlovable. It’s a peace that passes all understanding and comprehension. Each of the markers in our lives was put there for a purpose. The markers exist to help us remember who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised.