And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. Joshua 14:10-11 (NKJV)
One quarter of a million. That is a rather large number to most people, myself included. One quarter of a million. Say that a few times so that it sinks in. One quarter of a million. That is how many miles my van has driven. The places it has gone. The things that it has seen. The record of all the events that took place during those 250,000 miles. Every inch of that van had to travel those 250,000 miles together. Everything under the hood had to cooperate to accomplish this feat. All working parts had to be maintained in order for the van to make this milestone. 250,000!
Wow!
I was thinking about this the other day and decided I would put pen to paper to try to capture some of the thoughts that ran through my mind. I have to first mention I am not the original owner of this vehicle, thus I can not take credit for the many miles it journeyed before it became mine. I can attest to the number of miles since.
I had purchased the van a few years ago from a traveling Evangelist and his wife, two lovely people who truly loved what they were doing. They would travel for hours inside that van, to reach their scheduled destination and then unpack to minister to others. After the event, they would again pack their belongings into the van and head for their next destination. They towed a trailer behind them, where they would spend their evenings when on the road. It seemed like a perfect match. Ministry plus van plus trailer equals success. The Lord had truly blessed them with the number of safe and comfortable miles He allowed them to travel inside that van.
The number of people who had received a blessing from these two saints of God must number in the thousands. I would pause to wonder if the number of people reached by this old van equals the miles traveled? Can you imagine a quarter of a million people? The number astounds me!
