We Are Going
Sunday 2 February 2025
Not Where To,
But With Whom,
Whom We Trust Is Always God.
Numbers 9:18
At the command of the Lord the Israelites would set out, and at the command of the Lord they would camp. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they would remain in camp.
Hebrews 11:8
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going.
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Words of Grace For Today
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I wish it were so easy to just follow a cloud and know that we were doing God’s will.
Of course, setting out without knowing why-when-towhere, camping wherever a cloud stops moving (when the wind stops blowing), and trying to have enough to survive on – well all that is not easy at all.
Moses and the people had escaped from tyranny, drudgery, and and and … but the wilderness … now that was a challenge.
Not that the people just took it all in without noticing how freaking hard it was. They complained about no water. Then about no food. Then about no meat. Then about no Moses. And they made themselves their own godlet out of their gold.
And paid for it. None of that generation made it into the Promised Land.
Now Ab and Sara had different challenges.
They did not live in poverty or want for much. But they were called to leave to go … to go they knew not where, but God promised them a new inheritance.
Today we might call that colonization of someone else’s homeland.
Of course when Ab set out not knowing where he was going, Ab was not alone. Sara was with him, and lots of other people, animals, and, and, and ….
Still they faced challenges we can be glad we never face.
Today there are millions of people who set out not knowing where they are going. We call them displaced people. Most don’t even have a place to go to. The UN estimates at the end of June 2024 122.4 million people are displaced (1 in 67 people on earth), only 43.7 million of them in refugee camps.
My not knowing where I’m going is hardly as traumatic. I, like most of us, do not know what challenges I will face any given day, because of politics (25% tariffs, 51st state, no more carbon tax and rebates), or because of weather (wilder by the year because of climate change- and the cold is just plain hard, the heat unbearable, and the smoke debilitating, the winds more and more dangerous and destructive), or because of hatred somehow focused on me, or simply because I can lose faith and then hope, and then motivation to do what is necessary to survive today or tomorrow or next season or next year.
Where are we going?
We never know. What we can be is thankful we have some place to call home. And some stability in our lives. Millions have none of that. And many of them live within 50 km of us right now, and many many more within 500 km.
Wherever we are going, God walks with us, maybe not visible like a cloud, but palpable nonetheless.