It took Israel three months from their exodus of Egypt until they took up residence around Mount Sinai. In those three months, they saw the end of their slavery, deliverance from Egypt, they walked across the Red Sea, witnessed God’s miraculous provision of food and water, and won a war in God’s name. They saw evidence upon evidence of God’s love and care for them; His strength and power over their enemies and yet His protection over this chosen nation. Israel would go on to spend a long time in the wilderness of Sinai and a lot of their societal structure would be established there. Nevertheless, God wanted to meet His people at Mount Sinai the way He met Moses from within the burning bush.

As Christians, we know not to sin. That’s pretty obvious, and for the most part, maybe it’s easy to refrain from those big ones: murder, theft, adultery, gossip, etc. But what about those sins that seem little and insignificant? What about a complaining attitude? Sure, complaining seems like a harmless thing to do. After all, isn’t it bad to keep our feelings bottled up? Isn’t it healthy to vent? How does a little complaining hurt? To that I say, it’s not so much about venting. It’s about the habits that constant complaining naturally leads to. In all truth, if we truly lean on God and trust Him to keep us and provide for us, what do we have to complain for?

Everyone knows and loves the story of Moses and Israel’s exodus from Egypt. There are movies about it, songs, coloring pages, teaching curriculums, you name it. The story is full of miracles and unbelievable moments from plagues to the parting of the Red Sea. When you’re talking about the awesome power of God, there is no story like this one. And the grand finale of it all is just as Israel is making their last push out of Egypt. They go out and camp just along the shores of the Red Sea, waiting for God to show them the next steps of their journey. Meanwhile, Pharaoh has changed his mind and gathered his army to go and re-capture the Israelites. You would think, after losing so much in ten plagues– including his firstborn son– Pharaoh wouldn’t want to go toe to toe with God again.

When I was a little girl, my parents instated a bedtime routine for me. It was some iteration of bath, snack time, brush teeth, story time, and then saying prayers. Like most prayers for little kids, there was a rhythm to it so that eventually I’d be able to say them on my own and know what to pray for. One thing we always prayed has always stuck out to me. Each night, we’d thank God for His many blessings, seen and unseen. As a kid, I didn’t understand the full breadth of what that meant, but as I got older it meant more. It’s simple, but hard to wrap our minds around: the fact that God blesses us in ways that are readily apparent and obvious, but He also blesses us in ways we aren’t even aware of, simply because He can see things going on around us that we could never possibly see from our limited perspective.