Into the Wilderness
Back in July the Art Chapel collaborated with our Heart and Home Family Ministries and hosted our second annual Summer Splash. This is our version of a Vacation Bible School (VBS) except the parents stay and enjoy the fun. We see this as an opportunity for young families to practice reading the Word together, spending time in discussion, spending time creating and having fun as a family. We had 10 families sign up and about 40 people in and out of the Art Chapel during the week. This year’s theme was “Into the Wilderness” and each day we went over scripture about the Wilderness in some way and focused on how God provides and moves in the Wilderness of our lives.
This has got me thinking about the season of Wilderness. Throughout the Bible, many people walked through a physical wilderness during some of the hardest seasons of their lives. They experienced fear, uncertainty, loneliness, and times when they had to depend completely on God. While most of us won't walk through a physical desert wilderness, we all experience our own seasons of hardship, uncertainty, and waiting. Not only does everyone’s season of Wilderness look differently, I think we all have more than one season of Wilderness that will vary from other experiences we’ve had. It makes me think of Exodus 16:3 when it says:
3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
How ungrateful the Israelites were after being rescued from slavery in Egypt. I feel I am often that way. Ungrateful. Whether I am actively complaining about a situation or hardship I am in, or maybe I am simply taking all I’ve been given for granted. I hope that in my times of Wilderness, I learn to praise God, despite my circumstances. I pray I learn to thank God, not only during the Wilderness, but for the Wilderness. Thank Him for the pain, the loneliness, the waiting, the hardships, whatever it is, thank Him. It may seem like backwards logic, but the reality is, God knows what He’s doing. I might not get the big picture right now, I might not get the big picture ever. Still, I have faith that God knows and is working. I need to learn to thank Him for the seasons of Wilderness.
Maybe you’re experiencing a season of Wilderness right now, maybe not. Either way, I hope you see this as a reminder to thank God for everything, especially when you feel there is nothing to be thankful for - thank God.
Into the Wilderness
An oil pastel drawing I made while thinking and praying about praising God in the midst of the Wilderness.
