Oh, The Places You’ll Go

 

Jackie and Troy had prepared a going away, “we love you” basket.

In the basket were many of the items a freshman student in college will need.

But one of the items stood out among all the others.

A book.

But not just any book.

“Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to great places!

You’re off and away!”

You may recognize these words as the opening lines of the Dr. Seuss classic, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

It speaks not only to children, or to college bound students, but it has a message for any of us.

At any age.

Moses was eighty years before he discovered all the places he would go.

From womb to tomb as they say, and then even beyond that.

We are never finished going.

We go and we go and we go and we go.

We are constantly going to new places and returning to familiar places.

You may have places you one day hope to see or hope to see again.

I hope to in the very near future travel to Israel and am exploring options now for such an trip.

I hope one day to return to Fuiggi, Italy, into the older village in the hills and go back one hundred years in my mind.

You may hope to travel to destinations far, far away.

Or you may look for adventure, with your children, in the woods right behind your home.

A child may find tales of terrorizing tumultuous seas in a sailing ship which looks amazingly to you like a large cardboard box.

It is really not about proximity of location or geography.

The excitement is in the journey, both imaginary and real.

In the days ahead, children will begin school for the first time.

In the weeks ahead, college students will travel new paths, meet new friends and discover that the world is bigger than they thought.

In the months ahead, you may discover new roads, and go to new heights and walk through lonely places which God will guide you through.

In the years ahead, you may discover that God truly does have the whole world in his hands.

And all along the way, you will find that the fun in discovering, is all the discoveries that you discover that you had never discovered before.

New worlds, new people, new lives.

And as Dr. Seuss ended the book, Oh, The Places You Will Go!

“And will you succeed?

Yes!  You will, indeed!

98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!”

Don’t worry, the missing 1/4 percent is all the faith you will need to move those mountains.

He’s got it all figured out.

Just go!

“I will instruct you (says the Lord) and guide you along the best pathway for your life.”  Psalm 32:8 (TLB)

John