The Exodus: Led by the Hand of God

Led by the hand of God

God lead the children of Israel by a cloud during the day.  A cloud that not only lead Israel in the way that they should go, and signaled them when to stop and rest, but it also provided them with some refreshing shade.  It kept the hot sun off of them.  Then at night, God had a pillar of fire over them.  The children of Israel could look up in the middle of the night, when it’s pitch black in the wilderness, and they could see that God was still with them.  The pillar of fire also provided them with light and warmth in the dark wilderness.  What a beautiful picture of the presence of God with the children of Israel. 

Going through the summer in the RV was ok.  The air conditioner worked well and kept us cool.  As long as it was less than 100 degrees outside, we were very comfortable and cool.  When the temperature was over 100, the air conditioner still kept it tolerable for us.  As fall rolled in and the weather became cool, we began to wonder how the RV would fare against cold, snow and ice.  We had meetings scheduled in Chicago in January.  When I goggled the weather in Chicago for January I found that they usually had high wind and temps around -10 degrees!  I thought, oh no…how are we going to stay warm in an un-insulated RV! As I was starting to fret a calming peace came over me.  I knew that God was able to take care of us, and more than able to take care of the weather for us.  That week I was reading in Exodus about how God took care of the children Israel and led them with a cloud and the pillar of fire.  I prayed just then and gave my worries to the Lord.

Also that week I talked to Lisa and she was also a little concerned about how the RV would weather through the winter.  She brought some very warm comforters, and bought the kids warm pajamas, and  winter gear!  They were ready to take on the snow.

Maryland was thus far having a very mild winter, but we weren’t sure what awaited us in Chicago. We had a very uneventful drive until at 10:30 pm , in the middle of nowhere, we heard, “BANG”.  My heart sank as I contemplated how bad the timing was for a flat.  In the mist of all these farms, there weren’t even any street lights on the road.  We got out and none of the tires looked flat, but we noticed that the back of the RV was resting on the tires.  This was not good.  We couldn’t just stay there for the night because the generator wasn’t working.  There was nowhere in sight to pull into or ask for help. Chad decided we needed to just press on.  We had another 2 hours to drive, and we needed to get there so we could get help.  We had all the kids sit on the left side of the RV as we tried to take as much weight of that side as possible.  Chad drove very slowly, but every time we went around a turn or hit pothole we could feel the RV grinding into the tires.  I wondered if the RV would flip over if the tires popped…but when the fear wanted to creep in, I just gave it to the Lord.  I prayed with the kids and put them to bed.  Chad and I prayed and trusted that God would get us to where we needed to go.  We finally arrived at the church after 1am.  The pastor came out to greet us, and helped us get hooked up.  The next day the furnace went out, and we discovered two flat tires.  We had no heat, but the temps in Chicago were in the 60’s; and only in the 40’s a night.  Still cold, but with our blankets and space heaters we were comfortable.  As the pastor began to tell us about how strange this winter has been in Chicago I began to contemplate if God had adjusted the weather just for us.  Everyone agreed that they had NEVER seen a winter as warm as this one.

 A few hours after we left Chicago, a friend called from the church called us to see if we were ok driving through the snow.  We asked, “what snow?”  Apparently a big snow storm was coming through Chicago, and the temperature had dropped drastically after we left. What an amazing God we serve.  The mild weather followed us around all winter long.  My children were sad that they didn’t get to play in the snow, but God’s care was over us at every turn. 

We serve an amazing God who loves us and cares about us.  We are under His constant care!