By: Heather Wolper
This has been a year of faith stretching, a year of wandering in the wilderness, a year of learning to trust God to provide enough manna each morning to sustain us until we lay down to sleep again.
As the months have stretched on, my spirit has grown weary and blistered beneath the scorching heat of suffering and I have struggled to rejoice.
But, here as I watch the waves hit the shore, I remember the parting of the sea and God’s mighty hand of deliverance.
“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, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.” Exodus 14:21-22
Here, life slows to a crawl and time revolves around cannonball contests and afternoon popsicle breaks, the bobbing of fishing poles and sunset dinners on the dock.
I tend to nothing but hunger and exhaustion and the whisper of God’s gentle voice.
Here, I find Sabbath.
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:11
Here, as I watch the sun fall slowly beyond the horizon, I remember God’s faithfulness and thanksgiving floods over me like salty ocean water.
“Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take.You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.” Nehemiah 9:19-21
Here, I choose to rejoice.