Pastor Nick : “God of Day and Night

God of Day and Night

Pastor Nick Quient

14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night long with a fiery light. 15 He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 16 He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.

(Psalm 78:14-16 NRSV) Believe it or not, I was a pretty quiet kid in Sunday School. My teachers rarely if ever called on me, mostly because I had my nose in a book or was whispering with a friend. However, I recall a rather epic rendition of the Exodus event as retold by a particularly caffeinated teacher.

“Did you know God came down as fire!?!?”

Call me easily intrigued, but I was. The teacher then told us about the entire Exodus event, with varying degrees of historical accuracy but with all of the verve and passion of a Southern preacher. I was hooked. And then the teacher said something like, “and they stayed in the wilderness for forty years and thank God we’re no longer in the wilderness!”

Of course, thinking about it now with Lent upon us, that seems a bit odd. Part of the Christian journey is living into times of distress and unease—or at least beginning to learn how to live into such times. Jesus prayed. The Spirit prays with us. God listens to us. Sometimes there is no easy way out of the wilderness and perhaps therein lies the problem—we’re uneasy and scared, and our mission is to get from the sand to safety.

But sometimes the point is not in the destination, although the destination is important—the point is on how we put one foot in front of the other and remain in Christ. Trials come and go. Pain ebbs and flows. But the Holy Spirit is always there with us—especially in the wilderness.

So do not be too anxious to leave the wilderness. Take some time to reflect and to pray. What might God be showing you? From where does my rescue come? What is God doing in my life? What have I ignored or overlooked? The flowers set in hard sand might be a sign to stop, look, and follow that plant to the next, and to the next, and then onto the great river beyond.

It is in the little things that the Holy Spirit speaks and moves. Let those of us who are in the wilderness find consolation in the wilderness, where there is holy ground to be found.