“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12 (NIV)
I have a friend who spent most of his working life in the Fire and Rescue Service in the town where we live and he felt privileged to be a driver of the appliances. One day, he recalls, when they were on their way to an emergency, it was a blue lights and sirens call (blues and twos), traffic was clearing to let them past but as they sped along the road, he noticed a white van reversing out from a driveway on the right-hand side, onto the main road into the path of the fire engine. My friend’s immediate response was that of a verbal description of the situation, “Look at that clown reversing out in front of us! He hasn’t seen us!”
The driver of the white van by this time had realised the error of his ways and began to move back up the same drive he came out of. At the same time, he leaned out the window of the vehicle and gave the fire crew a desperate wave of apology and indicated it was his fault and no doubt hoping the fire crew would forgive him.
He acknowledged he was in the wrong reversing onto a main road and sought forgiveness. He was forgiven, but the whole incident did bring smiles to the fire crew.
“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.”
In this changing world, there is so much to take our minds off spiritual things and we look at seasons like Christmas and see them being turned into a retailer’s paradise, leaving out the main reason for the season. In some areas of the world the word Christmas has been dropped and replaced with Happy Holidays, as though the Christmas season as we know it is dying out. The Christmas story however is not about death, at least not at this stage, but about life. It’s about the newborn King. There is a way that appears to be right, and it involves following a path, a walk, a route, and experiencing the one who makes the path, who sets the direction. And the route? Well, that begins at the manger and follows on to the cross and following the guide is really worth considering.
Going back to finish our story of the white van man and his driving skills. The surprising thing about the driving experience was, that the white van man was indeed a real clown. On seeing him wave out the window showed his face was painted clown colours, complete with the massive red lips and big eyes. He was wearing clowns clothing and apparently, he was an entertainer going out to do a job entertaining kids. So, he really was a clown!
Enjoy your day.
Tom Bonnar
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