6th April 2022

I noticed a track on the pavers this morning, left during the night, by a snail who either (a) had drunk too much coffee, or (b) was on his mobile phone – you know the meanderings made by people while talking, or (c) was completely lost in the dark. Unfortunately, my linguistic ability in escargotti is not so good, and so I’ll never know.

But I do know more about that time when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. Not the ‘big wandering’ in the wilderness that lasted for some 38 years following their departure from Mt Sinai, but the ‘small wandering’, just after they had left Egypt. From a bird’s eye view, the path they were leaving in the sand must have looked like the one left by my snail. Pharoah thought so, and supposing they were lost, summoned his army to attack.

He should have stayed in bed. For the Israelites were far from lost, but simply caught up in a divine plan for their deliverance. God led them by a circuitous route to the edge of the Red Sea, and then opened for them a straight path to freedom. They stepped into the parted sea and passed safely through. Pharoah’s army followed and was decommissioned. And the God of heaven was proved powerful and to be trusted. Which are all lessons worth remembering in my days of weaving and wandering. Perhaps it’s not a case of too much coffee, but the outworking of a higher plan.

DM 6^th April 2022