Waterfall Journeys - encouragement

 Nunawading Seventh-day Adventist Church Bulletin - Apr 13, 2002

 My wife and I ventured down the Great Ocean Road to Lorne this Easter. We
visited many waterfalls in the area, ranging from the towering Erskine Falls down
to rnany little trickles also fu ll of beauty in themselves. Not all the waterfalls are
close to car parks so you have to walk a fair distance to most. Some are a trip up
a mountain and others down steep terrain. (For some strange reason it's never
flat!) I decided we should visit one more waterfall, which brought a funny groaning
sound from my tired wife. But to her credit she came along with me. We climbed
up and up and had no idea how far we had to travel. Then around a corner,
unexpectedly, there it was, out of nowhere a huge mossy rock face with water
streaming over it. Stunning. After a few pies we turned around and headed back,
glad the journey was not as long as we feared it could of turn out.
We'd just gotten around the corner frotn the waterfall view and there was a father
and son climbing up. "I'm tired, I wanna go back", the child whined. He was so
close to the finish, literally around the corner form it, and didn't know it. We just
smiled and let them walk on to discover for themselves how close they really
were.
We traveled down another couple of minutes and met a man coming up. He
asked us "How much further is it?" "Oh, 5 minutes", we answered and walked
past him. We then released that he was fol lowing us back to the car park and
upon arriving he got in his car and drove off.
After boarding our little yellow car I realized that I had not only come across a
visual delight on my walk but also a parabolic insight to our attitudes to salvation.
Some of us are tired and feel we can't go on but need motivation from others to
complete our journey to eternal life.
Others (all of us really) are so close to the final reward and just don't know it.
And there are those also who are interested in the end reward but aren't prepared
to put any effort in and so will never make it and discover how great the end really
IS.
The journey of life feels long but the end is now near. Stay alert, go your hardest
and never forget there's the Creator of the universe waiting for us along with a
sinless eternity of rest and play.