Thursday,
September 21, 2023
The children
of Israel had water issues. When they
were running away from Egypt, they were stuck with too much water, the Red Sea,
preventing them from getting to the Promised Land. The Egyptian storm troopers were hot on their
heels, and God parted the waters so they could walk through dust, instead of
swimming (and mostly drowning). Three
days later they had the opposite issue – no water. They complained and Moses led them to
Marah…where the water was unhealthy, bitter.
God fixed that by purifying the water.
Further on in the journey they were dry once again, and God brought forth
water from a rock.
I had my own
issues with a water valve this week. The
plumber came right away and did another miracle, fixed it, and charged me less
than the cost of a Buick!
Normally I
write in the early morning hours.
Yesterday was an exception. I
started the day by getting my dog settled with his business, and carrying him
to that spot he occupies right next to my desk.
I began to write when dawn was just breaking. Elizabeth opened the study door and the
pitiful sight of my bride in pain was worse than Israel’s drought on the
run. We immediately got in the car and
went to the Emergency Room. Around three
o’clock we found out she had pancreatitis, along with a secondary infection. An hour later she was admitted and settled into
a room. It is now 8:22pm, I’ve just had
supper; it’s been a day!
So what does
all that have to do with Marah’s bitter water?
Well, I’m glad you asked. Today’s
events were much like Israel’s Marah experience. When they were back in Egypt as slaves, they
could at least count on having water to drink from the beautiful river
Nile. Out in the desert life became
uncertain, uncontrollable. Today
reminded me of that…my sweet bride, usually smiley and always on the lookout
for our family…now helplessly rubbing her side, and not wanting to do anything
but be left alone. And Russell,
helpless, unable to do anything like Superman, leaping tall buildings, stopping
speeding bullets; I had no way to take away her hurt. All I could do was just sit by the bitter
water of pain. I’m not sure how many
people prayed for us today; I do know my phone looked like an exhausted little
puppy when the battery died. Tons of
people responded to our Facebook post, and the word spread. When I left Elizabeth’s room at 6:30 this
evening she was smiling, and looking forward to coming home tomorrow. The doc had said, “we’ll see,” but I know
that look in the woman’s eye.
So…time to
wrap it up and get some sleep. My day
was planned to write. Pain had other
ideas…and like too much water at the Red Sea, too little water in the desert,
and bitter water at Marah, I got frazzled and saw my weakness. But God had the answer…even before I asked.
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.
Title Image(s) courtesy of Pixabay.com
Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
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