Dear friends,

At a recent evening service at Guildford URC I asked the question, "Is a line of ants a line that ants walk along, or is it a line created by the action of the ants walking in a particular way."  Maybe there's an obvious answer to this, for without the ants you wouldn't see the line.  On the other hand, it's just possible that the ants can see something that we can't and that they are following a predetermined path.  So perhaps the answer to the question is, "Both"!

The prophet Isaiah, in chapter 35, talks of the 'Way of Holiness'.  The prophet is foretelling the release of the people of Israel from exile even before the exile happens.  He describes the people who will travel on the Way of Holiness, and those who won't.  It is a wonderful picture of the restoration of the people in so many different ways.

We could, however, ask the same question about the Way of Holiness as we did about the line of ants.  Is the Way of holiness a fixed line, so to speak, which people travel along, or is it something that is created by the people walking in a certain way?

Again, the answer to this question is, "Both"!  There is a way that leads from the temporary world in which we currently reside to the eternity that God has prepared for us.  There is only one 'way' for us who are born of human flesh and who die as human flesh and that way is through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who became flesh for our salvation, who became like us so that we might become like him; from exile to restoration through the forgiveness of our sins.  There is no other way into life but through death and beyond. 

On the other hand the only means by which this way can be seen is when those who know they are on it show it by their words and actions in the world.  When we accept the truth of God's love for us all (John 3:16), and show that love for others in our lives, then the Way of Holiness will be visible to others by the 'way' we behave.  This is part of the mission of the Church and part of our calling as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Maybe Jesus really did know what he was talking about when he said, "I am the Way, the Truth and… the Life."

Thanks be to God.