The Rickety Old Bridge

Now that it had finally arrived, spring was showing off.

Warm breezes collected and spread the fragrances from budding trees. Daffodils, daisies, impatiens, and irises smiled an invitation to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors! So inspired, I decided to visit the next township.

At first I was so enthralled with the playful lambs and calves in the pastures that while following the GPS, I was not paying close attention to where I was actually going on the twisting, turning, sloping, one-lane country road.

Ahead of me was a rickety old bridge without guardrails. There was no “bridge weight limit” sign. It did not look like much with its wooden slats of a sickly, washed-out gray—lending credence to my belief that there was no way this bridge could support the weight of my vehicle. There was simply not enough substance to the seemingly haphazardly constructed bridge. I paused. Surely the township would not allow an unsafe structure to remain open. Would they? Cautiously I proceeded forward, flinching at every creak and groan of those wooden boards. When I had successfully crossed the bridge, a sobering thought crossed my mind. Though I had never encountered this particular bridge before, and it certainly appeared structurally unsound, I had shown enough faith in the township’s ability to care for its roads to move forward. Did I show as much faith in God, who has proven He can be trusted over and over again? Sometimes we can look at a situation and proclaim it too dangerous, too hopeless, too impossible, or too big for our God to handle, and so we stand still.

We do not move forward. Although the Lord had told Joshua He would go before the children of Israel and drive out the Canaanites and the Hittites (Joshua 3:10), they had never encountered a situation like the one they faced at the Jordan River.

When they had faced the Red Sea years earlier, it parted before they crossed over. But this time the priests had to wade into the fast-flowing waters before the waters would part. We place our faith in many man-made objects like airplanes, boats, and, yes, bridges without much thought. But let us pray that, like Joshua, we will demonstrate the most important kind of faith—faith in God, who can use even rickety old bridges to teach us a lesson while guiding us safely to the other side.

Charmaine Houston