Gotta get your feet wet

This morning as I was reading my Bible I came across a section of scripture that caused me to recall something I had run across recently. I have no clue where that was so I can't give appropriate credit. Which is probably just as well since I can't actually recall what it was I read either so I'd surely mangle whatever it was I was trying to relay.

So we'll just talk about the things I saw this morning recognizing the source as the Word of God. In Joshua chapter 3 the Israelite nation is getting ready to begin the process of taking the land of Canaan as their own. A couple of lessons spoke to me. First Joshua tells the people that they are to position themselves so that they are following the ark of the covenant because "then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before." Many times in my life I have been asked to go somewhere I had never been before - those journeys were so much less frightful when I remembered to keep the Lord in my sights. Because life is played out one day at a time we never really know where we are going do we? Just keep the Lord in your sight and it's okay - we can rest in the assurance that no where we are being led (or dragged kicking and screaming as the case may be)is a place to be feared because God is already there.

Secondly I was reminded that the priests went ahead of the Israelites when they came to the Jordan river. Joshua writes that the river was at flood stages. I remember when I was maybe 10 years old that the Arkansas river flooded my hometown. Mom and us kids were at home and Daddy was working. He came home in the middle of the morning and told us to pile in the car he was going to take us to see something. We drove out to the highway and parked along the shoulder with about 30% of the population of the town and stood there looking at the river. It was almost out of its banks - a dirty, raging, swirling tide of water roaring past. There was all sorts of debris being pushed along. That is what I remember when I think of a river at flood stages. The LORD tells Joshua that the priests are to go ahead of the people carrying the ark of the covenant. The waters of the Jordan river are going to be cut off but only AFTER the priests step into the water. I don't know about you but I would certainly have much preferred that I stand at a safe distance from the river's edge and God could part it, dry up the land underneath and then I would cross through. Their salvation came after they got their feet wet.

I confess I've done everything I could to avoid the water on many occasions. I wonder what I would have learned had I just gone ahead and stepped in? What blessings did I rob myself of? What opportunities for richer faith? What amazing things did God want to do in my life?

Joshua 3:1-17