Sparrow Ranch Faces True North

Sparrow Ranch Faces True North

There are many different types of roads, but they all lead somewhere. Some roads are gravel and a little bumpy. Some are well-worn cobblestone paths that have only grown smooth with time and much travel. Some are evenly poured asphalt and provide a ride free of bumps, jolts, and potholes. Some roads are dirt paths that are barely visible as they are nearly impossible to decipher from the nature that surrounds them. And yet all roads lead home, as the old saying goes. Whether it’s smoothly, down a road laden with potholes, or down a little unassuming dirt path, all roads are roads because they lead somewhere.

Down a particularly long stretch of road, at times within sight of a shimmering lake populated with fish and fishermen, there lies at the end a home. It is a home that doesn’t seem to belong to one particular person. It belongs to many. It provides a place of spiritual rest for those who are weary. More so than the physical rest so lacking in the average American these days, this home provides a spiritual rest that welcomes every weary soul into the safety of the shelter of its trees. A breeze blows off the lake, whipping around the faces and hair of those gathered on the sandy bank of the lake with eyes focused on one dead tree: a rough wooden cross. On this late April day the Pneuma in Greek or Ruach in Hebrew moves through the gathering of weary souls, providing a chill to the slowly warming day. Standing before the gathering is an eclectic group of individuals, rising from their seats one at a time to share one common theme: the life road they have traveled to converge on this place by the lake for one morning.

As each person shared their individual journeys: some on bumpy roads laden with physical pain, some on gravel roads that have thrown them into loss and grief, and some on barely visible dirt roads that perhaps only one pair of sandaled feet traveled before their own journey. Yet each testimony shared pointed to the fourth person in the fire from the Bible account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. No matter how rough the road and how impossible the circumstances, there stood beside each person a man ‘who looked like a son of God’ standing with them. Though not visible as in the ancient scriptures from Daniel, the fourth man stood with each person, giving them strength to travel their road, knowing how it feels to fall and look at that road through blood and sweat from a new angle of laying across it rather than walking it. Jesus knows how it feels to walk an uneven cobblestone road. He knows how it feels to walk it strong and physically well and how to walk it weak and bleeding. He knows how roads that once felt smooth and even can suddenly become rough and unfamiliar and will trip a person who perhaps has traveled them hundreds of times with no difficulty. There in the background of each person speaking stood a memorial to the person who stood in fire and did not burn up, who fell face first on a road He had traveled to heal others both spiritually and physically, who faced death and won so that others who face death can win as well. There stood an old rugged cross with its arms pointing East and West to indicate no end of the covering of our sin and with its foot firmly planted South, indicating victory over the grave. Nothing below it will stay below it when He who was crucified upon it comes calling. And the tip of the cross points true North, upward to the Heavens where dwells He who walked every road, felt every pain, experienced every loss, faced every temptation, carried every burden, bore the weight of God’s wrath, saw the face of Satan himself, and sits victorious, alive and well, on the throne of Heaven, suspended above the earth waiting to return and wipe every tear. There sits the one and only Holy Son of the Most High God. The one who left planning to return. The one who sent the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit bearing the Shekhinah glory of the God of Creation. The very Spirit that blew across the small amphitheater by the lake at the end of the winding road to remind all those present that there is no road they can walk that He has not already left His footprints. This late April day seemed like a day of defeat to many. It seemed like a day that struggled to even be. It seemed like a day formed of the impossible. Yet a road was paved for some very special individuals to answer a call to be present. Those that were present on this day experienced the breath of God blowing across the waters. As one young man opened up the Word of God and challenged the people with three Bible verses, the waters of the lake inexplicably began to grow rougher, lapping up on the shore unbidden as if reaching out to try and hear the Word of He who created them. Even the waters of the earth are crying out for the undying Word of the Lord God Almighty.

There is a road. It’s paved with gold. It runs along a sea that is as smooth as glass and as shimmering as crystal. It is not lit with a burning sun. It is lit with a Holy light from the face of God Himself. The roads of the earth run east and west, north and south, but when we walk the True North road that keeps our eyes fixed upon an empty cross, we are part of an army that already has claimed victory in an ancient war.

Donate Now!

Would you prayerfully consider investing into the lives of these children?


Sparrow Ranch on the Island is raising money for our events coming in 2019. With the recent growth and interest across the country, we feel the need to expand our vision in other locations. We plan on working with local churches to plant this unique vision so it can flourish.