The Bible is filled with stories about people who traveled a lot. There’s Abraham (just for starters), and there’s Jacob, and King David, and the prophet Elijah. There’s Moses and Joshua, the Apostle Paul, and, of course, there’s Jesus.

Once upon a time God’s friend — have I mentioned God’s friend to you? God’s friend likes to hang out with God, and ask God questions, and sometimes even poke a little fun at God. A lot of my friends like to pick on me a little bit. How about your friends? Do they tease you sometimes?

No? Really? Well, what about the adults in here?

Ah, yes. We’ve got some people who’ll answer a question honestly.

In any case, God has a friend who likes to tease.

Anyway, God’s friend found God watching a person’s journey. The journey, I must say, was not going well. God had a notion about where the person should go, but the person was struggling to get there.

God would put up signs along the way to show the direction. Sometimes the person would look at them, check the arrow, and go off in the right direction. More often, though, the person simply didn’t look, and would turn or go straight more or less at random. Sometimes that had the person going the right way, but more often than not it was a side road.

When the journey came to a traffic circle, like the one in Pahoa, that’s when things got really interesting. The person came to the traffic circle no less than four times. After six turns around the circle the first time, the person headed off in the wrong direction. On another circle around, the person actually started back the way they’d come in the first place.

All told, the journey wasn’t going smoothly.

God’s friend watched God watching all this. And God showed not a sign, not an inkling, not a tremor of frustration or impatience during it all. God simply watched, and put up more signs, and from time to time God smiled.

God’s friend has less patience.

“This is taking forever,” God’s friend said. “I don’t know that this person will ever get where You want them to go. How long are you going to stay with them on this journey?”

God smiled. And then God said:

“All the way. I’ll be with them all the way.”

Which is, of course, how God stays with us, my friends. All the way.

All the way.

A rainbow over the road in Waimea, Hawai’i, November 14, 2016. Photo by Eric Anderson.