Yesterday while I was talking one of my anxiety-prone kids through a seemingly endless set of worries and what-ifs, the weirdest thought came into my mind: All those years in the wilderness must have forced those Israelites to become really flexible!
The Exodus would have driven my young worrier nuts. Think about it: The Israelites were there in the desert without a plan, without a set destination, without a timetable, in a place they didn’t want to be, led by a guy they didn’t really know.
They had none of the comforts of home. The neighbor’s kids were either bawling or else flinging scorpions at each other. Grandma was cranky, the sun was too hot, and nothing was going the way it was supposed to. No one knew what to expect, and the food stunk. Flexibility had to be one of the keys to sanity… and survival.
Thus it dawned on me that while I’d always thought those 40 years in the desert were just about trust, they were also about flexibility. For how can we imagine we trust God if we’re not open to unexpected detours and radically roundabout pathways?
God is with us at every pivot point, at every intersection. He will be with us no matter which sand dune we cross, however many times we cross it. And in that sense it doesn’t matter if life works the way we want it to or not. It doesn’t matter if the path is smooth or bumpy, clear or uncertain. For as long as we are willing to traverse every zig and zag with God, the path is a good one, and we will be satisfied.
