As I sit down to write Live Wire this morning, all is right in the world… well, I have a steaming cup of fresh coffee, anyway, with my favorite French Vanilla creamer swirling into its depths. Oh, it’s still only 11 degrees out and life is still what it was yesterday, aside from us having fresh water and coffee creamer. Can you believe that something as minute as creamer or fresh water, made the difference between life and death, based on my re-reading of my own Note To Self last night. I think at one point, the night before last, I may or may not have considered riding a stray dog to the grocery store… either that or my husband was going to have to find a nearby cow to milk!
While looking over what I’d written only a day ago, aside from feeling like a big baby, I saw a thread of common ground surface between life today and life for the Israelites so long ago… change is never easy, and we all handle it differently. Just as I struggle to adjust to difficulties and changes in my life currently, so too did the Israelite struggle as they headed out into the wilderness to find the promise land! They left everything they knew behind them, following Moses into the desert with just a hope and a dream to spur them forward.
While my husband and I had this old RV to place our meager belongings in, for our journeys, the Israelites had to use livestock to carry things… or their backs… I’m already complaining to myself! Clothing, babies, food and water, shelter… and we shouldn’t forget, God had the Egyptians give the people all of their belongings as the Israelites headed out! That’s a large amount of STUFF! The wives packing for this journey must have been overwhelmed with this process, before they ever even left the house. These people had never camped before… they’d been slaves! From birth to death these people had only known the yoke of slavery, never given the right to think for themselves. Get up, serve the Pharaoh, go to bed… somewhere in there one best eat… this was their life!
When I followed the Israelites from Egypt, I found them at the base of Mt. Sanai, some time after they’d crossed the Red Sea and left the life of slavery and bondage behind… but did they? Do we?
Sometimes change can feel so foreign to a soul, it can easily be seen as the wrong direction… as the soul who is experiencing this change, possibly, only has limited experience or understanding of said change! If you’ve never experienced the pain of a needle, it makes trusting a stranger difficult, when they say it will be good for you and it’ll only hurt for a second… or two or three! I think this expressed my point in a round about way, without writing out some of the more painful changes most of us face during our lives. It would take days of writing to cover all the differing experiences that might be encountered by one person or another… why… because what one person goes through may not be that bad to another. Now put those two people together in a tiny home and wait… just wait… wait for it…
How would you know how I feel, says one… why do you make such a big deal out of a small thing, says another… See what I mean?! Now bring in a neighbor, who may live in a big cozy house, with lots of rooms and plenty of space.
Imagine how it must have felt for these people, during that actual period of time in history, traveling together, ending each day by setting up house among the dunes, in a sort of giant communal campground. You don’t really get to pick your neighbor, nor will you get to choose your own space in your tent, depending on how many were in your family unit. There were some strong, some weak, some young, some old, some youthfully healthy while others were suffering an illness or perhaps just the infirmity of old age. There were no parks for the kids to burn off pent up energy, no clinics to get easy medical care, no metro busses to run you across the campground to where the nearest healer was… we are talking hundreds of thousands of people… camping… together… in ONE spot!
Can you imagine the logistics alone, on travel day, when it was time to gather your belongings to yourself, get your family together and head out. What if a member of your family was sick… oh well, too bad! When it was time to move, everyone needed to follow suit whether they were ill, injured, or just emotionally exhausted! Life went on within these folks whether they were traveling or not… babies were born, parents passed away and had to be tended. Celebrations and grieving alike, had to be undertaken on the fly, so to speak!
When I started reading the part in Exodus, where Moses climbs Mt. Sanai to collect the Stone Tablets God etched for him, as well as all the rules and guidelines for governing the people and building God’s Tabernacle… no wonder it took 40 days! I felt like I was back in grammar school, as I steadfastly read through all the measuring, weighing and descriptions of the temple. Add to this time, all of the Order of Operation guidelines given for people to just plain get along… I was reading for a while.
I’m sorry, but the movies make it look like Moses took a trip up the mountain and while God just plunked a book of information down into his human form, all the folks that were waiting down below simply got bored and decided to have a party! I used to always get so mad and judgy towards this very young village, as it seemed that none of them had a blinking backbone for right behavior. It is so easy for us to sit here, with our hot coffee and French Vanilla creamer, pointing the finger at others for how they handle change, trials, and/or hardships in their lives. I consumed chocosyrupmallow watercoffee yesterday that left me wanting to hitchhike to Safeway with a complete stranger… ya… that covers my level of skill at handling things when I’m overwhelmed. I have a new understanding of Aaron, Moses own brother, who melted the gold down for the people. In desperation, he tried to pacify everybody by created the Golden Calf, only managing to make things worse. By the time Moses got back to camp, the party was in full force… if I saw what Moses saw that day, I would have tried to hit a few partygoers with the stone tablets being thrown to the ground!
This first major mountain that the Israelites found themselves before was a very life altering CHANGE for this young village. As I continued to read on through the parenting God did with these people, I saw an incredible transformation occur, within the hearts and minds of people just like me… they began growing up. By the time God called Moses to return to the mountain for another set of Stone Tablets, he left a completely transformed village behind to await his return. For the first time, from Moses all the way down the line to the youngest mind capable of understanding, everyone was ready to follow and obey.
Now I didn’t say everything was now working like a well oiled machine or anything, as that would take more time, more traveling, more mountains, and yes ladies and gents, more CHANGES!
What I will say, however, is that I saw reverence and growth begin to change the hearts of God’s people. The same holds true for us, living so many generations past that time, regarding change and growth…
It’s our attitude that effects how we cope with change, and if we change our attitude about the challenges we face… that is when the growth comes! Wiwohka
Journey With Me! 