FOLLOW THE LINES

From the window of a friend’s home in San Francisco it was exciting to look across the Bay to the San Francisco airport where planes flew in or out every two minutes. They appeared very close as one landed and another took off. They fascinated me as I watched planes arrive safely, while others flew into the night sky.

Every day hundreds of planes landed from all over the world – Australia, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Canada, South America, Argentina, England, Europe.

As the sun sank over the horizon and darkness came, the flashing light of the plane indicated its position. Some arrived from the west over the ocean, and others from the east beyond the hills. From my comfortable position, it looked as though they passed each other by only a few centimetres.

How could so many planes fly in or out safely, without bumping into each other when they appeared so close?

Well, several days later our hosts drove us to Fisherman’s Wharf where we bought cakes, chocolates and drinks. We sat on the jetty to watch the 400 sealions and listened to their noisy-dog-like bark. Every July they paddle into San Francisco bay for the warm summer.

Following this we drove up winding roads to the Lookout with its picturesque view over San Francisco Bay and Airfield.

As I viewed the tarmac I found my answer in the clearly – painted white lines, some leading north to south, and others from east to west. These enabled the airpilots with instructions from the flight Control Tower, to carefully follow the correct lines for landing the plane, or guide them as they flew up out of the Airport.

So I understood why flights at two minutes worked safely. The pilots knew the importance of following the lines.

It reminded me how God has given us safety lines. Because He loves us, He has given us guiding lines to follow. While you will not see them painted on the ground, you will find them written in a Book – the Bible.

Write out your list of ‘safety lines ‘ by reading from these verses.

Psalm 1:1

Psalm 119:11

Philippians 4:8

Galatians 5:22

Colossians 5:12-14

I encourage you to buy a small notebook to add more safety lines as you read the Bible each day.