In over our heads

The northern tip of Michigan’s lower peninsula was a great place to grow up.  Its beauty is stunning – woodlands of conifers and white birch, crisp air, star-strewn skies, a creation masterpiece framed in white-sand beaches.  Yet it’s the waters that still call to me.  Great Lakes and inland lakes, all reflecting hues of deepest blue, their waves pounding shores in great might or lapping them in quiet rhythms of soothing cadence – sometimes powerful, sometimes peaceful.

But always cold!  Our daily summer dilemma was whether to wade into the water slowly, pausing every few steps to acclimate to its gradual rise against our shivering frames ... or just dive in and get on with our swimming, diving or waterskiing.  Most of us chose the latter.

I picture Ezra as a “dive in and get on with it” kind of guy, too.  Having witnessed to King Artaxerxes, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him,” this priest and teacher of the law found himself in over his head – committed to leading a people on a treacherous journey to Jerusalem, but "ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen” to protect them.

There’s something refreshing about decisiveness and commitment: though our options narrow, our paths become clearer.  “If” gives way to “how.”  And for Ezra in that moment, there was only one “how” to pursue – “There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions....  So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.”

Faith is like that.  When we immerse ourselves in trust, God hears our prayer and answers us.

And this God, who in great power spoke into being the waters and the majestic expanses between them, also patrols their beaches, faithfully watching over all who dive in and get on with living.

He is worthy of our praise.  He is worthy of our trust.

[See today’s reading, Ezra 8:15-23, in the NIV, or The Message.]