Thought for the Week

The Locks

At the bottom of the "Wolverhampton 21" the Birmingham Canal Navigation reaches the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal here at Aldersley.

© Copyright Roger Kidd and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Your writer, having just returned from a family holiday on the Staffs and Worcs Canal, life back in the "fast lane" is rather a culture shock. But lessons were learnt! It is good sometimes to slow down and to let mind and body reunite!

The Narrow Gate

Perhaps the first and most elementary lesson was that the locks were exceptionally narrow, in fact, only inches wider than the narrowboat on which we travelled, . Bruised brickwork evidenced the fact that not everyone succeeded in entering correctly the first time!

Although canals may not have been around in the days of Jesus, he did say, speaking of the Christian life,

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7 verse 14).

The Lock of Salvation

However, I learnt another lesson as we travelled through the locks that raised us to a higher level.

As my son navigated into the bottom of the lock, I had the immediate sensation of being entombed between the high dank walls, particularly as my daughter-in-law closed the gates behind us. Should she desert us, there was nothing my son and I could do, save crawling along the roof of the boat and risking our lives climbing a wet slippery vertical ladder.

On the other hand I had faith in my daughter in law, that she would close and open the appropriate sluices and we would quickly sense the boat being lifted on a rising flood of water until we ultimately attained a level sufficient for the forward gate to open for us to proceed.

Perhaps you wonder from where all this extra water came to lift our boat to a higher level? What happened when all the water at the top got used up? Good question! The secret lay in a reservoir or a stream above the lock feeding in a flow of water to replace that which was being used each time a boat went up or down.

Isn't grace - God's undeserved mercy - like that? As the Bible says,

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God...  (Ephesians 2 verses 4-8)

1. Because of my Transgressions I am spiritually as helpless as I was in the boat at the bottom of the lock. I couldn't lift myself or the boat.

2. God, because of his rich reservoir of mercy, provides the resources necessary to lift me from a level of spiritual death to one of spiritual life.

3. The Lord Jesus, at the right time, comes alongside to close and open the spiritual lock gates, As He said,

"I am the Gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture." (John 10 verse 9).

Staircase Locks

Where it is necessary to raise a canal to a significantly greater height, a series of closely adjacent locks form a "staircase" - the Wolverhampton Staircase contains a flight of 21 locks. - We made such slow progress, that at 6.30 pm, a canal operative threatened to lock us in the flight for the night - we still had three left to go!

I learnt a third lesson. Progressing through a "Staircase" is a  process which cannot be hurried!

Salvation can be like that. Whilst we are "saved" from the moment we first become Christ's disciples, there follows a long (and often painful) learning curve as we progress step by step up the "Staircase of salvation". We rise in maturity until we attain that holiness of character which is truly Christlike.

Even a great disciple like Paul had to admit,

Not that I ... have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3 verses 12-14).

Truly, the believing Christian can say, "I was saved - I am being saved - I shall be saved!" He is on a Staircase. God grant that his progression may be always upwards. Like canal locks one can go down as well as up!

Updated 24 Jul 10