One must take the road to Damascus first to arrive at the road to Emmaus and our destination in the Kingdom of God.

We all have used a GPS app or device to find an out of town location we have never been to before.  Our travel called life can take many turns, and some lead to a dead end.  Some are uphill, some downhill, most are rough with chuckholes and bumps, but few are on level ground.  You have seen signs on a newly opened road that may say unmarked pavement.  Our life usually travels on the unmarked pavement with no borders or separations to know where you safely travel.  I know men will throw the roadmap in the back seat and say, I got this, I know where I am going, this is a shortcut.  Usually, it turns out to take longer and end up somewhere we had not planned. 

God had to knock Saul off his high horse to get his attention. Before he could correct his travel, his traveling was not in the right direction to arrive at the destination according to God’s plan and not Saul’s intent.  God changed Saul’s nature and his name.  Paul was now on the path chosen by God. 

There are no shortcuts.  We are born into a life and world of crumpled roadmaps devised by man that may not be the latest updates.  God must be our GPS, not a human-made device but a trust that God knows how we fit into his plan.  He knows the path we must follow to find the level path to the greatest treasure.

On the road to Emmaus, the two met Jesus but did not know him.  They had heard of him and his crucifixion, death, and resurrection.  They heard of the empty tomb just as many “Christians” have.  As it is said, they had a head knowledge but not a heart knowledge of what Jesus did and the magnitude of sacrifice.

Luke 24

 ¹⁶ But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. ¹⁷ And he said unto them, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

¹⁸ And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

Our eyes are sometimes holden because we have not yet supped with Jesus.  We have heard of him and read about his crucifixion and resurrection but have not realized the empty tomb.  Our travel being skewed and lacking a relationship with God.  Jesus stated, “I am the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”  That is the right narrow path.

As aforementioned, we may rely on a device to get from point A to point B  has all the pitfalls of humankind’s hand.  We may create something with our mind and is beneficial at a low level.  The program has a voice that tells you to turn here or railroad crossing ahead.  I have had my GPS send me down a dead-end road with a mountain between me and where the road continues the other side with no road across.  I had to call someone at the destination to find out what was wrong.  They told me I had put in the address with another city on one side of the mountain.  The physical address was on the other side of that mountain.

We must know the address that we desire is the real destination.  God supplies that destination, and we can only achieve that destination by his plan for our lives.  If we lean to our understanding, which may be following a GPS device, we will not reach the goal we should desire is only achieved with a personal relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

[Pro 3:5-6 NKJV] 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your understanding.

 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

The cross displays his suffering and sacrifice, fulfilling his gift of Grace.  Christ’s tomb borrowed where no man had laid therein is a symbol of Christ’s birth of a Virgin. We must be reborn by the spirit of God.  We are a new creation free of the constraints of sin.  The stone rolled away, symbolizes our freedom.  The Resurrection of Christ to the right hand of God seals our destination to spend eternity with him.  No more dead-end roads, no more instruction from a programmed instructor.  No matter where one is going, everyone using that GPS will get the same answer and outcome.  With God, everyone is different, with different paths to achieve his perfect plan.  God directs all in various ways to follow different approaches, but all will be to one destination, being in his presence.