I just got thinking about this little town in England called Burford, and wanted to post some pictures. It's the quaintest little town you ever saw, and at the bottom of the hill a stream runs under a bridge, and past the bridge, you are suddenly on the green countryside.
Burford... Isn't it a lovely name for a town?
The little round thing on that building is a clock... Unfortunately the lighting was right for a silhouette, so you cant see the really cool face and hands of it.
Okay, this picture made me think about crossroads, and all the different signs pointing in different directions. A few stories come to mind. The first one is in a Beatrix Potter movie I used to watch when I was younger, and it was about the two pigs who wanted to go to the market. When the one little pig loses his brother to a policeman because he didn't have papers, he comes to a crossroad with signs much like this one, and tries to find the one that leads to the market. I THINK, but I can't remember for sure, but I think he ends up getting lost, because he took the wrong road. (But I am probably wrong.)
The second one is this... In a book we have called The Squire and the Scroll, the young squire comes to a fork in the road. Beside the fork are a pair of huge thigh-high boots. He looked at the roads, and perceived that one road seemed like a slough, and that one would sink as soon as he stepped foot on it. The other appeared dry and firm. He consulted his scroll, and then asked himself why the boots would be there if the one road was dry... So he determined to take the slough type road wearing the boots. Immediately as he made this decision, a rabbit hopped on to the dry road, and sunk beneath its deceiving surface. The boy stepped onto the miry road and found it firm beneath his feet.
The third (and last one) is this. In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian arrives at the foot of a mountain. The road going straight also leads straight up the mountain, and looks treacherous and tedious. There are two other roads branching off from the first, looking very easy and good to travel by. Christian knew that the right way was straight, and as he was about to continue, two men come up and are discussing which way to take. Christian attempts to dissuade them from taking the paths... I they were named treacherous names, but I cannot remember them. The two men only said that they were named such to try and deceive the person. So, one took the right, the other the left, and Christian went straight up the mountain. The man who took the right hand way became lost in a forest, and fell into a pit. The man who took the left path had a similar fate, and neither were ever heard of again.
The road to righteousness is not wide, and it's not easy... it's filled with toil, and tribulation, and temptations... thousands of stumbling blocks. It's an uphill climb, not a downhill run. "There is a way that seems right to the end, but in the end it will only lead to death." Proverbs 14:12. The counsel of God is the only one that we should abide by, and yet, so frequently, we turn and "go our own way" so to speak, and end up getting into tons of trouble. So, though man may point to many ways that we should go, we should not follow any path unless it abides by God's word. Christian knew that the right way was up the mountain, because he had been given directions. The other men also knew, but they loved luxury more than toil for Christ, and it ended in their death. Anyways, just some thoughts. :)
What the countryside looks like....
And more countryside. I loved the image portrayed here... The wide open space, the golden against the green, and the cloudy sky... and the field dotted with orange lights with smoke streaming from them. I just hope that the fire wasn't accidental. ;)
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