By Darren Weeks
As I sat tonight, in a parking lot, watching the traffic pass on the highway, I wondered about the people who were passing. What were their stories? Where were they going? And why?
There was the usual assortment of truck drivers. I had a pretty good idea why they were traveling. But I wondered how many of them had families back at home, waiting for them. Missing them.
Then, there were a few RVs that passed, probably containing happy families. The parents, who had worked all year for this moment, were now rewarded with a chance to get away from the daily grind. It was a chance to sit around a campfire and roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories. A smile decorates my face, as I am blessed to be able to share their moment of bliss.
Speaking of bliss, for some this expedition was the beginning of a new chapter in their stories. It was for the purpose of matrimony. An adventure involving another life and, perhaps, the beginning of new lives.
For others, this chapter in their story was a migration of sorrow, as the end of the journey would find them saying goodbye to loved ones they would never again see in this life.
I would likely never meet any of these people. Indeed, the closest that we would come to having our lives intertwine would be on this night. At this highway, with them being unaware of my presence and inquisitiveness.
Yet, each life has been created by God. A unique individual, with a unique story to tell.
For some, it may be a story of prosperity, possessing fortunes untold, and even fame.
Others, however, likely found it a struggle to make this trip. For them, it was a strain to even buy the necessary supplies to sustain them, while on the road. They may have been praying, as they passed me, that their balding tires and other aging parts of their jalopy, last the duration of their pilgrimage.
But whoever these people are, whether poor or wealthy, whether prominent or unremarkable, each possess the same uniqueness. Regardless of their ethnicity or gender, each entered the world naked, unlearned, and equal in God's eyes.
And the experiences of their lives, the ups and the downs, the choices that each have made until now, have shaped who they are, and who they will eventually become. And the trek they are now taking, may yet serve as one more step in that destiny.
And I have been enriched at having shared in a tiny part of their voyage.
