This past Friday our family went on an adventure, though like many good adventures we didn’t quite realize we were beginning one until it was too late. Life can be like that, and our spiritual journeys can be as well. Sometimes you even know that you are starting the adventure, but you have no idea what that will entail. The Israelites left Egypt with a bang and started on an adventure like this. They crossed the Red Sea, watched God do miraculous things to keep them safe and secure, but little did they know what more they would experience.
They came to a place where they were desperately thirsty, this is of course bound to happen on an adventure, the likes of which they never would have imagined back in Egypt. God saw their need, and he provided water for them out of the driest possible material—a rock.
The psalmist, remembering this moment, speaks of it as such: “He brought waters out of the stony rock, so that it gushed out like the rivers” (Ps. 78:17). Only God can take that which has about 0% moisture and make water flow out of it like a river with the striking of it with a rod. What an amazing God!
Our adventure to the Georgia Aquarium started off innocently enough with a show and some crocodiles, but when we went to go to the dolphin show, we heard an announcement that the aquarium was closing suddenly and we all had to leave. Our journey was leading us into a dry and thirsty land where there is no water (which is ironic because there was a water main break causing the ordeal). We continued our journey, and in the end God brought water out of the rock (or through the asphalt in the road!). We ended up having just as much of a good time, if not more, as we would have at the aquarium, but it became a much more memorable experience.
We rode a Ferris wheel, had a picnic, risked life and limb to see a fountain gushing out of the rock, ended up on the Atlanta news, and randomly found our way stopping at The Dwarf House restaurant, home of the Chic-Fil-A sandwich!
Life is full of moments that look like rocks when we are parched and want nothing but some ice cold glacier water. There is much good that can come from enduring these hardships as we learn to suffer as Christ did. But, sometimes there’s a fountain of water that he is looking to provide to the thirsty soul in the least likely of places. Be well this week, and keep your eyes open for the rock!