Rays of Light

The moment I answered the phone I knew something was up. My daughter was even more excited than normal. “You’ll never guess what happened today at work,” she exclaimed. I barely had time to respond as she began to elaborate the details. Allow me to share them with you.

My precious works at a ferry company. Though her duties are varied, she often stands at the dock handing out return tickets that will allow passage home from the island. This was her assignment on that memorable day. But she ran out of tickets and quickly moved to the purchase counter to get more.

For whatever reason, the pilot of the catamaran stepped out of the pilot house briefly, leaving the door unlocked and the engine running. This afforded one over-zealous passenger and his son the opportunity to enter the pilot house unsupervised. Of course, passengers were not allowed in the pilot house, but I’m sure this man was just trying to do something special for his autistic son. Undoubtedly, his intention was to step into the pilot house long enough for his son to take a quick peek before they sailed, then exit just as quickly.

In that short time, however, the young boy took hold of the controls and caused the catamaran to lunge forward. It crashed into the luggage tent and railing, snapping the loading plank clean off. Praise God, no one was seriously injured. Nonetheless, my daughter would have been injured had she not gone to the ticket counter just moments before.

All I could say to her was, “Praise God He was looking out for you! Praise God, He was looking out for my baby.”

Last night I was lying in bed thanking God for his continual protection for my family. As I recalled the above event, the words of the ever-popular bumper sticker –God is my co-pilot-came to mind. Personally I’ve always thought the bumper sticker to be rather ludicrous. Why would anyone prefer God to be their co-pilot? It goes without saying that God’s piloting abilities are so far beyond ours as to be immeasurable.

Dear reader, we were all created to be vessels of God’s Holy Spirit. Thus, there is within each of us a control center, or a “pilot house” if you will. This is the place from which we make the decisions which chart our course, and help us reach our final destination. The question we must ask ourselves then is this; are we truly allowing God to pilot our decisions, or have we instead, sought opportunities to sneak in a few decisions of our own, hoping God won’t notice?

Either way, nothing escapes God’s attention. Unlike the catamaran pilot who stepped out briefly, God never leaves His post. In fact, He has promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Even so, God allows mankind to exercise free will. When we choose to exclude Him in any way, He graciously steps aside and allows us to do so. However, not allowing God to pilot our decisions often leads to catastrophe and harm.

On the other hand, trusting God to make decisions for us, and obeying those decisions, is not only in our best interest, it is to our profit:

Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go (Isaiah 48:17).

I don’t know about you, but I have learned the hard way –through many  painful crashes- to step aside and allow God to pilot my life. He is, and always will be, my pilot. And to the makers of those ludicrous bumper stickers I most adamantly declare, God is not my co-pilot!