November 19

“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” — Acts 26:19

Doddridge, in his life of Colonel Gardiner, describes the conversion of this soldier. He was waiting near midnight, the hour fixed for a sinful meeting with another, and was carelessly turning over the pages of a religious book, when suddenly he saw before him, vivid and clear, the form of the Redeemer on the cross, and heard him speak: “All this have I done for you; and is this your return?” Like Paul, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision–but from that moment turned and followed Christ.

That is what everyone of us should do; when we see Christ and hear his voice–we should immediately leave all and go after him. Not only at the beginning–but all the way through life—God sends us visions to guide us. Every time we see in a verse of Scripture, a glimpse of some beautiful thing commended, it is a heavenly vision given to lead us to the beauty it shows.

Every fragment of loveliness we see in a human life–is a heavenly vision sent to woo us upward. Wherever we see beauty which attracts us, and kindles in us desires and aspirations for higher attainments, it is a vision from God, whose mission is to call us to a higher life. We should make sure that we do not prove disobedient to any heavenly vision–but that we follow every one–as an angel sent from heaven to woo us nearer God!