A Courageous Heart

Sometimes things don’t work out as we hope they will. We have plans covered by faith, and we work hard to make our plans come to fruition. We have goals that we strive to achieve. We have dreams that we hope for. But dreams can be lost, and we are forced to dream new dreams and move forward.

The story of Moses tells how he led his people through the wilderness in hopes of reaching the land promised by God. Moses wandered the desert with a courageous heart. Along the way, he encountered all manner of experiences, the parting of the Red Sea, receiving the Ten Commandments, his experience with a bush that burned. Moses was honored by being appointed by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan.

But in spite of God’s anointing, Moses never went into the land of promise. This is what happened to Moses on Mount Nebo.

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is across from Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the South, and the plain of the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

Deuteronomy 34:1-4

It is true that Moses died without experiencing the promise, but oh, the miracles he saw along the journey! The lesson for us is to truly experience the sacred moments of our journeys, to savor the holy happenings, to take in the miracles that God shows us.

May God grant us eyes to see burning bushes and a heart courageous enough to cross Red Seas.