Hi, all. Just a thought to help start your weekend.

I’ll start this by asking you to take a really good look at my picture here. Are you sure you’re seeing what you’re seeing? It’s a car. It’s a boat. It’s a carboat. (I guess.)

My daughter and I were seated in a waterside restaurant awaiting our meal. We were chatting and otherwise minding our own business when we both noticed this sight at the very same time. Just beyond the wall of large windows near our table, a few folks were enjoying a boat ride. Wait! That’s not a boat! It’s a car! Everyone was watching by then.

I can’t explain that contraption except to say that if you are a Dick Van Dyke fan, then you quite possibly remember the old movie called “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” in which his character built a car that could float and also fly. I didn’t see this car flying, but it was certainly floating. Later, on dry ground, we saw the same car/boat and some of its counterparts sitting beside the dock like any regular car would. Unusual, to say the least. Interesting indeed. And just plain odd.

Do you ever find the Christian walk to be somewhat of the same? That is, unusual, interesting, or just plain odd? I do.

God is so good to me. That’s not only interesting, it’s also odd. I’m certainly not always good to Him. He is patient with me, He never leaves me, He forgives me — and He does all this while I’m so very impatient waiting upon Him, I walk away from Him on a regular basis, and I can be so very unforgiveable. How odd that He would care so much.

To walk the Christian walk is to sometimes feel as if you’re in a boat on a road or in a car on a lake. You can’t explain it. You see it, and it must be real. Yet, it is mindboggling. Nothing about being a blood-bought forgiven child of God makes sense to me. But, it makes perfect sense to the Creator!

I’m sure that the person who dreamed up the car/boat was brilliant indeed and was focused on creating an unusual experience for tourists. What an unusual ride this Christian life is. But wherever it takes you this week, and whatever mode of transportation it entails, remember that the One Who died for you went through the most unusual, the most interesting, the most odd things for you. He gave His life for you! And if that’s not odd, I don’t know what is. 

Whether I’m odd or not, I’m thankful He’s driving my boat/car!

Just a thought. ’Til later.

Brad Campbell can be reached at mastah.pastah@yahoo.com.