The path we cannot see

It has been said that hindsight gives us 20/20 vision, but what are we to do when we are in the space of difficulty and blind to the path in front of us? What are we to do when we feel hopelessly trapped, and cannot find our way forward? There are seasons and situations in our lives that threaten to overwhelm us. They last too long and hurt too deeply. They wear us down to the place of brokenness, and we loosen our grasp on the hope that anything will ever change, that anything can be redeemed. And we forget. We forget that God is working all things towards our good. We forget because when life doesn't feel good, it doesn't seem good. We forget that we only see the smallest part of the workings of an omnipotent God, and He has not lost control of any detail of our lives. For centuries the enslaved Israelites were living under the cruelty of the Egyptians. Each hopeless moment passed as the one before. And then one ordinary day a hesitant leader shows up with his rugged staff and a mission backed by the power and promises of God. Moses demands the king of Egypt to release this people, but the obstinate Pharaoh declines. And so the plagues come, each one marked for the plans and purposes of God. Hope rises within the Israelites at the realization of a witnessed miracle, and falls once again when their situation doesn't change. This cycle passes before them ten glorious times before Pharaoh demands the departure of the Israelites. And as they leave that place of suffering, God instructs Moses to guide the Israelites the indirect way to His promised land. This apparent wandering brings them to the Red Sea where they soon realize they are being pursued by Pharaoh and his army. Panic rises within them. They are trapped by a body of water on one side, and captors on the other. The power of God that they witnessed in the past does not carry them through these moments of fear and resignation. They forgot to remember. They forgot that God does not leave us nor forsake us. He is already making a way that we cannot see or imagine. His vastness has gone before this moment, this season, this hard place, and it stretches far beyond it. His love, His mercy, His grace are in the midst of it. He sees what we cannot. He knows what we do not. His faithfulness will overcome this seemingly impossible situation, and He will fulfill His promises to us. And as Moses stretches his hand over the sea the water parts, and God creates an unimaginable path forward. Between the walls held high by the power of His love, the Israelites walk away from a life of bondage and into their promised freedom. Our God is faithful. What He has done before He will do again. Hold onto this hope. He is making a way. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 (NLT)