Can I be really honest and say to anyone reading this post that I am SO READY to move on from the year 2009?!? I should be grateful--it's not like the year was totally horrible to me. I still have my faith, an amazing family, some fabulous friends, a great church, my health, a job and a roof over my head. But 2009 felt like an emotional rollercoaster year--full of lots of changes that weren't all sunshine and roses. I'm still trying to see the bright side, hope for the best and believe God for better things ahead. But when you're in (what feels like) a Desert in your life, it can be tough to celebrate.
But perhaps that's why it's necessary.
In today's passage, I noticed that God's people were (literally) in that same place. Take a look:
Moses told the People of Israel
to celebrate the Passover and they did—
in the Wilderness of Sinai
at evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.
The People of Israel did it all
just as God had commanded Moses.
Okay, at first glance, we could just gloss over the significance of this passage. But think about it--Passover was a celebration that God spared His people's lives, that He took them out of slavery in Egypt. That's pretty cool. But if you were one of the Israelites at the time, you might have thought, "Okay, God. I'm grateful you took me and my family out of slavery--but into what?!? We're still stuck in this Desert." However, God instructed the people to celebrate and they did. Passover was a miracle. God was still worthy of celebrating, even though the full story hadn't been written yet. He intervened and saved people's lives--and even though they were in the Desert, they were free. They were breathing. And they chose to obey--and celebrate His goodness in the midst of that Desert. Maybe we should, too.
Tomorrow: Numbers 11-13
