Website designed by
giraffescapes.com
Copyright 2010
All rights reserved

Purpose:

To provide a Christian environment in which cancer patients and their loved ones can share their emotional, spiritual and physical needs with each other and to encourage one another through prayer, Scripture, and practical help.    

Sand
Exodus 1:11-14

Gritty and in everything.   That’s my mind’s picture of Egypt.  Oh, the pyramids are in the distance and there are fields near the Nile, but all around the landscape and in every nook and cranny is sand.  I wonder if the Israelites thought about it as they slaved for the Egyptians.  It was everywhere and probably in everything, but so often when something is that prevalent it becomes invisible because of its very commonness.

When it blew in their eyes did they recall the promise made to Abraham, that his seed would be multiplied as the sand that is on the seashore (Genesis 22:17)?  I wonder if they thought about that when they swept it out of their homes.  Did they remember the land God promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob (Genesis 50:24)?  Did they know they were created for something better or had they been slaves so long that they had forgotten?  If, when eating a meal they heard it crunch between their teeth, did they remember the news given to Jacob as he received his new name—the guarantee that a nation and a company of nations and kings would come from him (Genesis 35:11). “I will surely prosper you, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." (Genesis 32:12) The reminder was all around them. I wonder if they saw it. Or was it only an irritation.

In the same way, do I see the reminders all around me?  All the little ways that my Father tries to tell me of His love.  Even the sand:  “How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee.” (Psalm 139:17-18) 

When the Light exposes some sand in my heart, do I focus on the dust and the filthiness?  Have I been a slave to sin so long that I try to sweep with my own courage and hide it under the rug of excuses? Or do I look on the very griminess and remember that great Love that promises to perfect me and prepare me for a new and wonderful land that He has created if I only come to Him with a contrite heart and ask (1 John 4:17, 2 Peter 3:13)? 

When life tastes gritty and hard, do I remember the banquet being prepared for those who are adopted by God through the blood of His Son (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).  Do I think of my sorrows as only an irritation or do accept them as further proof of His love as He sanctifies me with the trials of affliction.  "But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10) Can I see the sand for what it is?—a reminder and yet another chance to see His unending faithfulness? 

 

"For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Neither has He hidden His face from him; 
But when he cried to Him for help, He heard."
Psalms 22:24