Crossing the Red Sea

Did you ever wonder what the Children of Israel were thinking as they were crossing the Red Sea?

According to Exodus 14, “the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left”. I wonder if this struck them as odd. I wonder how their rational minds explained or justified such a peculiar event. I always wondered if they could look into the walls of water on either side of them and see fish. (but I digress)

There had to be a rational way to explain this miracle. There had to be a way for their natural human brains to process and understand what was happening. If I am reading the story correctly, it says that a strong east wind blew all night long and pushed the waters back. I know, it didn’t happen that way when Charlton Hesston did it in the movie, but that is what the Bible says.

So, technically speaking, the wind did it. God used the wind, a common natural everyday presence, to carry out his will and demonstrate his power. The use of the wind however, makes it no less a miracle.

That has been my experience with God working in my life. The miracles that I have witnessed have been on the surface, explainable, natural, and common occurrences. But they have always had an undeniable way of revealing God’s love, his will for my life, and his power to carry it out.

I always condemned the Children of Israel for so soon forgetting the Miracles. One minute they would be happy, joyous, and free - awe struck by God’s power and care, and then the next minute they would be despondent - worrying and complaining about being thirsty, hungry, and tired. No mater how great the miracle, it was always quickly and completely forgotten.

I shouldn’t have been so quick to condemn them. I am the same way. I have witnessed many great miracles. God has taken extraordinary care of me and my family. He always has, and he always will. But, right now I’m tired and the desert is hot, and the road is long. ..
God forgive me.

The Plot Thickens

OK, this is really getting depressing. Let’s skip all of this “sick” stuff.

Let’s just say that I was a little under the weather for the next 3 – 4 days. The only interesting part of that story anyway was how I was able, with the help of 9 angels, (a story in itself) to not only survive, but to actually hide my little predicament from the Onsite staff. (Apparently, they just thought that I always sweated and shook like that.)

I did not sleep. I remember praying a lot. For the first 3 - 4 days most of my thought process centered around just how to hide this mess. I was stuck in damage control mode. My overall goal was to save my job, my marriage, my family, my finances, most of all my reputation.

Through it all there was always this nagging feeling that I was really missing something important. It was as if someone far away was screaming at me - trying desperately to get my attention

I did acknowledge how odd it was that Rusty just happened to be my roommate. I told Rusty that had it not been for him, I would have told everyone (myself included) that I had come down with some sort of flu bug, and that I needed to go home and reschedule this little adventure. But there was just something about this guy. Maybe it was the odd fact that he just happened to have been through all of this before. I continued to think how very insightful it was of this place to strategically place two people with such similar stories into the same room.

I remember giving my “There are no coincidences” speech. I remember telling them about my long held belief that everything in life happens for a reason. Publicly I gave the credit to God for bringing us all together. But honestly, privately, this little miracle was, at the moment, lost on me.

I do not remember the exact day the lights came on. It was either day 3 or 4. It was one of my worst days physically. I was sweating, shaking and cramping. I think it was on a lunch break. I was coming out of my cabin (I had just spent my 20 minute break in the bathroom) Rusty came up to me with a very strange look on his face.

“You are not going to believe this” he said quietly as he led me back into the cabin and laid his cabin key on the table.

I wasn’t following this at all. “What?” I asked impatiently, what’s wrong?”

“Look at the key!” he exclaimed. “Look at the room number!”

This explained a lot. It explained why Rusty didn’t have a water bottle with his name on it. I felt sicker.

It was the wrong key. Rusty had been in the wrong room all week. He had walk in that first day while Ralph and I were talking, and had never notice that he was in the wrong room.

Something finally clicked.