It was bliss. Swimming in the Gulf, diving under waves and letting them pull me back and forth, over and over. No wave pool like it.
Now and then, I’d touch the bottom, get my footing and a little rest, then swim on. Until one morning when I dangled my feet and found nothing. My adult self might have panicked. My ten-year old self floated, swam forward and found the sandy bottom once again.
I don’t know why I need the shallows these days. I tell myself it’s because I like mastery. Let me learn something and learn it well. Let me check it off my list. Accomplished? Check.
God doesn’t cooperate with that plan. Instead, he invites me into the deep, to venture into borders of His calling I’ve never visited. To let Him take me where I couldn’t go alone.
Moses and Aaron were used to deep waters in Egypt. They let God speak and act through them. Over a million people came out of cruel bondage because they were willing not just to say, God do it, but, God do it through me.
Our battle for the deep is all about identity. If we believe we’re made only to splash around the shallows, that’s where we stay. But the Creator of the universe formed us for much more.
Moses climbed the quaking mountain, full of the smoke of His glory, to receive a heavenly download for the next part of their journey. Part of that download included Aaron and his sons. God spoke of a new identity, prepared for a new place and new time.
Their identity would invite access to Him. They would be a part of teaching and modeling that access to an entire nation.
Instead, Aaron let a cheap imitation overtake the real. His decision contradicted what God knew to be true about him. Instead of teaching God’s people how to draw near, he led them into another system of slavery.
Not being willing to know His heart for me now is dangerous. It says that what I know is enough, even though the challenges of today prove otherwise. So I’m pressing into that mountain for a new view. It’s more than I’ve experienced and better than I know. It’s time. Time for that cannonball, smack into the depths of Him.
Shalom,
Laurel Thomas