Into the Sea

Psalm 77:19 “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.”

There’s something about the constancy of waves rolling in to shore. Sometimes they come with a paced regularity- you have time enough to double blink and blow water out of your nose. Sometimes they come one after another without pause- your eyes and throat sting with salt and you don’t know which way is up.

This year it seemed like all my paths ended up at the ocean’s edge. I would have a brilliant idea, I would fill out the applications, jump through all the hoops, and then bam- the path would disappear into the murky deep.

I think about the Israelites. It seemed like God had a plan when He took them out of Egypt- gave them food, got them money, led them out and then bam- their path led straight into the Red Sea. What was He thinking? What were the Israelites thinking to trust this God they could not see?

And yet.

And yet He expected them to walk into the sea. He expected them to keep following, to keep being faithful even if it seemed like a dead end. When the path disappears, I must trust. When the waves seem to come too fast and too hard, I must trust. I must trust that God is good. That God is faithful. That God has purpose in what He does and in where He leads.

Holy God, thank you for being faithful and good. Open my eyes to the ways you are working in my life and make my heart malleable and trusting of you. Amen.