More Reflections from Riding the Train

Since the trip I wrote about in today’s meditation, my husband, Brian, and I took the opportunity to ride the rails again. In the spring of 2018, we traveled across Canada by train, capturing memories and enjoying time together.

I looked through those observation car windows many times and enjoyed a vast array of scenery. Sometimes the front window had frost covering it first thing in the morning, and we needed to wait for the sun’s warmth to clear our view. Later in the trip, bugs covered the window and no matter how much I wanted an unobstructed view, I had to wait until we had a long station stop and maintenance crews cleaned it. Looking through the back window I could see the rest of the train cars and the scenes we had just passed, unless curves blocked the view. The side windows always remained clear.

I thought about those windows as an analogy to life. Just like I needed to trust the engineer to guide the train along the track and get us to our destination, I must trust God who sees everything in my life — now and in the future. God knows the way. The curves throughout the Canadian Shield and in the Rocky Mountains often limited the view behind us. In life, dwelling on the past limits our ability to focus on what God is choosing for us in the present.

To me the side views represented the present; where I was at the moment. With every mile we traveled the scenes changed, sometimes dramatically and I chose to enjoy each portion of the journey. Wispy clouds floated low in the mountain passes. Storm clouds obscured the highest mountain peaks but a rainbow showed us promise that storms would not always stay. Prairie grasses waved along meandering streams. Trees grew from rocky island surfaces in the many lakes of the shield. I watched ocean tides and saw wildlife.

The windows above my head in the observation car offered a view of the stars at night, the clouds, rainbows, sunshine and even eagles soaring above us. It reminded me to look up to God and wait for God’s words of promise to always be with me.

I journaled about our adventure as we traveled by train over those two months as well as the many insights into life it gave me. Brian and I made memories and interacted with people from all over the world. I enjoyed every moment.