Don't Miss This - Part 2

Exodus 14
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Dry ground. Dry ground. The earth that was once covered in water was immediately dry. God didn't just part the water for them to trudge across in the mud. He made it incredibly easy for them. No mire for their wagons or animals to get stuck. No slippery slimy algae to cause them to stumble. Dry ground.

Not only was the ground dry, it remained that way for the extent of the journey across the Red Sea. There are many different locations along the Red Sea where it is thought that the Israelites crossed, but let me just tell you that none of them are "a short walk." After they whined and complained and collapsed under fear, the very water upon which they were gawking began to part. I feel short of breathe even now just thinking about that scene.

After standing there for a moment, paralyzed by the enormity of this vision, the Israelites began following Moses, the one whose faith was enough to part these waters and deliver them. That just happened! Yet, knowing how their disposition was before the waters parted, I can imagine that as they were walking through the cavern of aquatic masses, there was probably fear and hasty movement. Remember, this is the same group that will later complain again even after being face to face with sharks, eels, jelly fish and the like.

We go through amazing miraculous blessings in our lives so often and so very shortly we forget the impact of the experience. Look at Americans and their great patriotism. We were invincible and united after 9/11, but wow it is far more difficult to see the camaraderie in our present year.

As for me, the same God who walked my mother through a challenge with breast cancer in 2003, was also the same God who would walk with her again in 2006 as it returned. I saw my own wall of water. I watched Him grant her more time on this earth in 2003. God allowed access to medical treatment that could provide restoration to her. God allowed man to get a peek inside the creation of the human body in order to even guess which combination of chemicals could be used to remove these small little cells that were not normal to the original design. It was not the chemotherapy that saved her, nor was it the surgery, it was God. He chose to answer our prayers and to hold her close as he used her life to reflect His glory.

For those brief 3 years in between the bouts with cancer, I did grow in my walk with the Lord, but I will not even begin to tell you that I did not have moments of complaining or exhaustion. I am far from perfect. I will tell you that I am not one to question God, though. I still had some of that same old me inside. The same old me that would whine from time to time. The same old me that would try to do things in my own power from time to time. The same old me that could easily forget the wall of water.

But I have walked on dry ground more than once. Many of my journeys have been several miles long like this walk for the Israelites. But the ground was dry...meaning He provided what I needed at that moment to get through that challenge. And let me tell you something, I am better for it. More often than not, I do not know why I am experiencing a trial as it begins, but I know why when He knows I can handle it. He delivers me! He has delivered you. And He will again. Don't miss this. Ask Him to show you the water - both that you have walked through and the water you are walking beside right now.