I was walking down life’s highway a long time ago.
One day I saw a sign that read, “HEAVEN’S GROCERY STORE.”

As I got a little closer the door came open wide,
and when I came to myself I was standing there inside.

I saw a host of ANGELS standing everywhere.
One handed me a basket and said, “My child, shop with care.”

Everything a  Christian needed was in that store.
If you didn’t have enough room in your cart, you could always come back for more.

First, I got some PATIENCE: LOVE was in the same row.
Further down was UNDERSTANDING; you need that everywhere you go.

I got a box or two of wisdom, a bag or two of faith.
I couldn’t miss the HOLY SPIRIT– it was all over the place.

I stopped to get some STRENGTH and COURAGE to help me run this race.
By then my basket was getting full, but I remembered I needed some GRACE.

I didn’t forget SALVATION, for SALVATION was free,
so I tried to get  enough of that to save both you and me.

Then I started up to the counter to pay my grocery bill.
I thought I had most everything to do the MASTER’S will.

As I went up the aisle, I saw PRAYER: and I just had to put that in,
for I knew that when I stepped outside, I would run into sin.

PEACE and JOY were plentiful; they were last on the shelf.
SONG and PRAISE  were hanging near, so I just helped myself.

Then I said to the angel, “How much do I owe?”
He smiled and said, “Just  take them everywhere you go.”

Again, I smiled and said, “How much do I really owe?”
He smiled again and said, “MY CHILD, JESUS  PAID YOUR BILL A LONG, LONG TIME AGO.”

Whenever I drive to the east side of Portland over the Marquam Bridge, I’m reminded of what it took for God to save us. On the upper deck of that two-decker freeway spanning the wide Willamette River, you can catch a glimpse of an exit that drops off into empty space.

When the bridge was built back in the mid-1960s, it was designed to accommodate an east-running freeway still on the drawing boards, which was to be known as the Mount Hood Freeway. But the freeway was never built. Oregon voters opted for a light rail line instead, and plans for the highway were scrapped.

Even though there is no Mount Hood Freeway, you can certainly see Mount Hood from the top deck of the Marquam Bridge. On a clear days it looms on the eastern horizon—a symmetrical, snow-capped beauty. And if you look carefully, you can see how the bridge was built to accommodate a freeway lane veering off to the southeast. It juts out just a bit from the bridge structure, then
is cut off as though sliced by a giant knife.

The “exit,” permanently blocked, now goes nowhere—except into the waters of the Willamette far below. You can see Mount Hood in all its beauty, glistening like a jewel in the distance…. But you could never, never reach the high slopes of that mighty peak via the Mount Hood Freeway, because the freeway doesn’t exist.

That’s a picture of man’s relationship with God. We might understand there is a God and even yearn to reach him across an impossible distance. We might recognize his power and glory, his majesty and goodness, and desire with all our hearts to know him and be with him. But the distance is too great. The gulf is too wide.

Only through Jesus Christ can we cross that gulf to God the Father.

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Ron Mehl, Love Found a Way (Waterbrook, 1999)

“Don’t stay locked in your past. Don’t keep focusing on yesterday with its heartaches and problems. It’s not important how many people have disappointed you, failed you, and done you wrong. The crucial issue now is not what they did, but what God has done…and what He’s going to do. Go forward. Keep believing. Keep moving!” — Andrew Merritt