My dad turned eighty years old last week. We went to Chattanooga a couple weekends ago and gave him a picture entitled Path of Life with Proverbs 4:18 printed on it:
The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
Daddy still chases cows in the country and sometimes early in the morning. But, of course, this Proverb is about more than the great outdoors.
Through faith in Christ and totally by God’s grace, we are called righteous like Abraham (see Romans 4). As we walk by faith, the Father wants the Light to become more and more clear and precious to all His children.
After returning home, I kept thinking there was something familiar about the Scripture I gave my dad. In our basement hangs a picture Susan gave me over twelve years ago. A young man is climbing a cliff looking at Jesus at the top of the mountain. The picture by C. Michael Dudash is entitled The Journey. The words of Proverbs 4:18 are written at the bottom of the print. I think Susan was reminding me with this picture that the journey is all about Jesus.
Our son Taylor and his wife Emma leave tomorrow for the Dominican Republic with a group of high school seniors on a mission trip. I don’t have a picture to give him, but I’ll ask Taylor to read this verse and remember the purpose of the journey. We need His full Light. The world needs His full Light.
I just realized there are 27 years between my dad and me and 27 years between me and Taylor. So whether we are 80 or 53 or 26, Jesus is the One who tells us how to walk the path. “Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” (John 8:12)
“Yet [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:20-25