Divine Interruptions-Streams in the Desert
Yesterday in Providence it was 60+ degrees in the afternoon. This is not normal for February at all. So Fran and I decided that once everyone was out of school and work we would go out and grab some ice cream with the girls. The problem is that our kids come home from school they always have this ravenous hunger, like they never get fed. “Dad can I get a snack?” “Dad can I have a piece of candy my teacher gave me?” Left and right I’m seeing pretzels and Cheez-its and anything else they can scrounge up.
As a dad I’ve found that kids are a really helpful metaphor for understanding our relationship to God. The wisdom and understanding gap makes for a decent analogy. They had no idea that they had ice cream cones coming their way. In their impatience and limited understanding they were taking up precious stomach space with mundane junk food that will still be there on Saturday afternoon the next time a snack attack comes upon them. Getting them to wait, however, was not easy! “Why not dad?! I want something NOW!'“
On Sunday Ray shared with us some of his story of how God has blessed him with bad days. For those who didn’t hear Ray, he talked about how his struggles with various things, including losing his business and suffering through heart issues, have led to growth and vitality in his faith. Those bad days ultimately redirected his life to better places, like a vine that was pruned so that it grows in a new direction.
So often in life we think we know what we need, or at least what we want. And so often we are wrong. I know my life is not what I thought it would be when I was in college. And more often than not the things that God has worked in my life provide a better future than what I wanted. Better does not always mean more money, or easier, or more comfortable. But I find more meaning and beauty in my life than I might have anticipated otherwise. Certainly I have a partner in my wife that is different than what I imagined as a young man, having strengths I didn’t even know to look for in a partner!
In the book of Isaiah God begins to talk the people through what it will look like for them in exile. It is hard to explain how crushing exile was for the people of Israel and Judah. To understand one should start with the devastation we see on TV from Ukraine with a foreign nation invading. Then think about the vandalism we sadly see toward certain religious communities. Finally throw in the terrible experiences that refugees suffer through. Exile is all of that. It was truly terrible. In the midst of that experience God says, ““Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19). Even in the horrors of exile God suggests that he will work through the situation to bring new life.
The challenge for us is to be patient as things seem to unravel. Sometimes God erases certain things in our lives in order to write a new chapter. That process is often painful. But as Ray shared with us, it is amazing when we experience the new streams that God can bring through the desert.