During my first week in Wisconsin, I toured many small towns on well maintained county roads. I learned their names and numbers from my driver, Heidi. She told me where they led and pointed out significant sites along the way.

“County roads are designated with letters. “H” is the one that we are on right now. And there’s the church my dad pastored and the parsonage where I grew up. See that wooden building at the curve in the road? That was the schoolhouse I went to for the first three grades.”

Later she said, “Now this is Highway Ten, going from Appleton through Fremont, Weyauwega, and on through Stevens Point.”

Like most Portland streets, the roads in Wisconsin’s small towns and countryside are laid out straight with intersecting roads at 90-degree angles. Frequently, I asked, “Which direction are we going?”

Sometimes, she answered with confidence when she was driving familiar roads on which she had much experience. But if the road was unfamiliar, her reply was vague and hesitant.

I thought how I would answer the question if I were driving in Portland’s east county or through the I-5 corridor. It would be with great confidence even though I may have never been on the road before.

Why?

Because I had a giant reference point, and I said aloud, “They don’t have a mountain.”

You see, I grew up with a mountain to the east. Beautiful, sloping, pointed-summit Mt. Hood has served as my guiding star for 79 years. No such guidepost exists on the gently rolling plains of central Wisconsin.

My next thought was this: Like Mt. Hood, God’s Word has been my steady reference point for 70 years.

The older I become, the more I rely on such verses as Proverbs 3:5,6: Trust in the Lord with your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (NKJV)

Even more than Mt. Hood, God’s Word stands steady and constant. I hope that you, too, find it to be true.