Those who taught us to drive warned us all the time to “watch the road”. Even though the road into the area is good, wide enough for two-way traffic and fully sealed, there are hills and valleys to negotiate with care. There are adjoining roads that look more attractive and you need to be alert to know when not to take the wrong turn.
Then of course, there are a couple of blind corners where you need to take special care and at night there may be wild life anywhere along the road that could cause a serious accident. You are constantly reminded of the old advice to “watch the road” all the time.
Nevertheless, it is a comfortably all-purpose road for anyone used to travelling country roads and to the older generation who were taught to drive on dirt roads, it is quite luxurious. They particularly still know to “watch the road.”
There is one place to the side of our road and when friends visit, they need to spin sharply off the main road into a gate and on to a single track. Nearly everybody misses the turn off.
It is amazing the number of visitors who know the road and have been there before, who miss the turn into the narrow road and gateway. They continue on down the wide road and finally discover it has led them to the wrong address and they have finished up in the wrong place.
It reminds me of when I was young and learning what life is about. Like the “watch the road” advice, I was taught there are undeniable rules of being on the right spiritual road. I was reminded often, on a sort of Scriptural “watch the road” basis, that I must be careful and diligent to understand and follow directions.
So my early teaching tells me to heed what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He warned me against deviating from the law of “watching the road”, “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14).
Elizabeth Price