About forty-five minutes after leaving Pusan, Korea, our jet liner began its approach to the airport in Fukuoka, Japan. Soon we entered ugly-looking clouds, which even at twenty thousand feet seemed almost solid. Descending sharply with lowered wing flaps producing the same kind of sensation as a bus braking on a steep hill, our plane made a number of turns, first one way and then another. With absolutely nothing visible through the clouds, I found myself getting tense. Insistently the thought forced itself into mind, How can this pilot possibly know what he is doing? It was not reassuring.
After several moments the rate of descent lessened. We seemed to be flying straight again. Suddenly we broke through the clouds, just a few hundred feet above the ground. We were headed directly for the end of the landing strip, and without having to deviate either to right or left, our pilot brought us in to a smooth landing.
My tenseness over, I mused on the marvels of that skillful instrument approach. Unable to see through the clouds any better than I, the pilot had nevertheless been totally undismayed. He had been in constant radio contact with the control tower, and the intricate instruments before him had unerringly indicated his proper flight path. Complete reliance on this marvelous guidance system had guaranteed a safe approach.
Life today has much in common with jet flight. The pace is swifter than it used to be. Broader knowledge, better facilities, more efficient methods, have stimulated a vast increase in accomplishments. Yet mankind's basic problems, like the weather, have not been eliminated. We run into them with devastating suddenness. Often we cannot see our way through.
Certainly we need a guidance system.
This God provides as standard equipment for every Christian. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go: I will guide thee with mine eye" (Ps. 32:8).
Instant availability.
Unerring direction.
Unlimited range.
All that is required of us is total reliance.
Reprinted by permission from the Far Eastern Division Outlook, January, 1974.
