Road Trip

If you have ever been on a family road trip, then you are accustomed to quarreling about food and drink. One kid wants McDonalds, while the other wants Subway. Mom wants to get out of the car and stretch her legs, Dad just wants to go through the drive through and get back on the road. Small disagreements like this can easily devolve into full blown arguments. And that is in our modern day when the road trip is taken in an air conditioned mini-van and the argument over a lunch spot breaks out just a couple hours after breakfast.

Now imagine 400,000 or so Israelites wandering on foot through the desert with only as much food as they can carry and no water in sight. And the people of Israel aren’t just tackling an 8 hour drive to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. They are on the front end of a decades-long pilgrimage through the desert and it is not going well so far. The situation is dire enough that the people begin to fondly remember their bondage in Egypt, when they at least had enough food and water. As is inevitable on road trips, quarreling ensues.

In desperation, Moses cries out to the Lord and receives a surprising answer, “strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” Through the water that gushes out of the rock, the Lord sustains his people.

Although lack of water is thankfully not something that we are generally concerned about in our daily lives, the Lord still sustains his people through water. He sustains and even grows the church through the waters of Holy Baptism. We too were once wandering in the wilderness, lost in our sin, in desperate need of help when the Lord led us to those life giving waters where we received much more than temporary sustenance. We received forgiveness and everlasting life.

Prayer:

Dear God, thank you for continually sustaining and growing your church through the waters of Holy Baptism. Give your people the strength and courage to live out that faith given in baptism each and every day of our lives. Amen.