Straight Lines

I’ve often complained that I can’t draw a straight line. I’ve always seen this as a fault, a drawback, a weakness, until one morning.

Out for my morning walk, I noticed the thin layer of clouds overhead. I was thinking about how Arizona doesn’t have many days of “Sky Blue,” Crayola Crayon Sky Blue. (I’m astonished WordPress doesn’t recognize Crayola as a word, as it does other popular proper names. I digress.)

To the north of the cloud bank, the sky shone its customary gorgeous blue, not Sky Blue, deeper, darker. The longer I studied it (I was walking slowly due to an injury, from which I’m recovered) the more I noticed the stark separation of clouds and no clouds.

The fluffy, white expanse of clouds looked like a blanket pulled over the sky from the south almost to the most northern edge. The blanket ended in a definite line, running east to west, smudging a bit toward the horizon on either side.

I also noticed the line wasn’t perfectly straight. Bumps and dips, not the roller coaster kind but more like the kind of line I draw, marked the separation between clouds and the blue beyond.

This started my mind wandering. Does God create any straight lines? Or is it only man who demands the perfectly straight lines?

I looked around, and the only straight lines I found were manmade. Trees have bumpy barks. The stems on my flowers have natural bumps. Those beautiful rays of the sun may look straight, but I know they aren’t.

How often in life do I beat myself up for not meeting an exacting standard manufactured by man? Instead of looking to God for His guidance and approval? Granted, I’ve been working to learn how to do the latter, instead of the former.

My last counselor helped me strip away numerous lies and rebuild on truth. I could complain that something must be wrong with me that I’m still stripping away lies. Instead, I think I’ll thank God for helping me unearth another truth:

God created a beautiful world of curves and “imperfections.” The only straight He holds of value is the straight and narrow way back to Him. Even in this, He knew we would falter and stumble and stray off the path. In his love and wisdom, He provided a way to return to the path: The Atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus showed the way and then paid the price for our straying. He only asks that I choose to follow Him and accept Him as my Savior and Redeemer. Not much and everything.