Guardrails

Thank 

From the winding ascent of Black Snake Road through the mountains of Arkansas to the many breathtaking overlook points in the Rockies in Colorado, you’ll find miles and miles of guardrails. Like sentries marching alongside the road, they stand as barriers between the safe and level asphalt and a sometimes cavernous drop into the depths below. 

We don’t question guardrails on roads like that. N fact, when we see a potentially treacherous road without them, we wonder why they aren’t there. 

Yet we have a desire to careen carelessly through life, without boundaries or barriers — without commandments. 

This is a hard thing to convey — that the God whose mercies are new every morning and whose love stretches to the skies also has rules. But like little children, we stretch out our little hand and touch what he’s already told us “no—that’s hot,” and then we are angry with Him because we got burned. 

It’s not from tyranny that He says “don’t” or puts up guardrails, but from love. Like any good parent, His desire to keep us from harm is stronger than His desire to give us whatever we want. The guardrails aren’t to confine, limit or suppress us, but to preserve us from our own weaknesses. 

And still, when we fail, when we realize we’ve crossed the barrier, He’s still right there to help us back over it, comforting us and loving us through repentance, healing what we have hurt and setting us back on the way forward. 

This is where His mercy and love prevail. This is when we realize the guardrails were built with love and concern for our wellbeing—these are His primary motivators, because He IS love. 

#BackyardDevo.