August 28

I was scheduled to start my first infusion on Monday but now I will have to wait until Wednesday. I was really disappointed but there is nothing I can do.

I neglected to write a story that has comforted me and stuck with me since I first thought about it some weeks ago.   While in the midst of doctor’s visits and being pocked and prodded with every diagnostic procedure I can think of the Elder came over one night to share a spiritual thought with Mee.  ( Mee and Karen are 2 Hmong girls who have stayed with us all summer after their parents kicked them out of the house for joining the church)

The scripture they shared was the revelation given to Oliver Cowdery in D&C 8:2-3 about the spirit of revelation and the Holy Ghost. Verse 3 concludes that the spirit of revelation brought Moses and the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground.

Now if I had been Moses and I found myself stuck between a large body of water and a murderous army I don’t think that praying for the Red Sea to part would have been on the top of my wish list.  The Lord could just as easy cause the Egyptian chariots to get stuck in a mire or better still kill them with large hailstones or best of all let the earth open up and swallow them all up. All these scenarios had already precedents in the scriptures. 

But to Moses the Lord said : ‘ Lift up they rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.... and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and their left.’

The Bible scholars don’t seem to agree exactly where the Israelites crossed this body of water.  Some think it was the Gulf of Suez others think it was at the southern end of the Gulf of Aqaba.  At that place the Gulf narrows considerably and if the waters were removed it would expose a land bridge about 11 miles long and between 800 – 1800 feet in depth.  Even at this narrow part of the Gulf crossing it would be no walk in the park. 

So while the Lord held the great waters at bay the Israelites still had to walk through this horrific and terrifying tunnel of water, climb down embankments and navigate an uncharted and uneven ground, all the while looking up at this wall of churning water looming over them.   On average a pioneer wagon train covered about 15 miles a day, so I estimate that the trip across the bottom of the Red Sea would be at least about a day’s journey also. 

Why did this story stick with me?  Faced with overwhelming, life-threatening problems the Lord can open a way for us to safety, he can part the waters of the great deep but He still expects us to walk through it.