The Divine GPS

     When I was in elementary school, my Daddy taught me how to read a road map and to calculate the best routes from town to town and state to state. It has served me well since he taught me such a useful skill, especially when I got my South Carolina driver’s license the day I turned 14! Yes! In those days, 14-year-olds could get their day license. As a teenager, I felt the exhilaration of liberation!

Hungary/Romania Road sign
Photo Credit:Romania-Insider 2013

     My husband grew up in the south Bronx. New Yorkers'   massive public transportation system made car ownership  un-necessary. I serve as the official navigator and often drive.  One of Paul's nicknames for me is a “human compass.” My greatest achievement occurred when we drove from Switzerland to Romania in 1991 with a road map, trying to decipher signs in other languages and confusing roads. We didn’t make one wrong turn. My husband was amazed. That was in 1991 before Global Positioning Systems became fully available to the public in 1995.
     Most of us now rely on some sort of GPS using Google, WAZE, or built-in navigation. Often though, when Paul and I are on a road trip nothing substitutes for a consultation with my Atlas road maps! I enjoy looking at the bigger picture and the colorful maps.

     As in all amazingly astounding inventions, ideas, creations, and guidance, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob created the first GPS. He led the enslaved children of Israel out of Egypt after 400 years; leading them into their previous territory that had likely changed drastically after 70 Israelites migrated to Egypt under Joseph’s rule. His heavenly GPS took the form of fire and cloud. An organic way to implement directions! He WAS the GPS. By day, they turned toward the cloud and by night the fire. Exodus 13:21 describes it this way: “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.” NIV

     Exodus 13:22 reiterates the cloud and fire combination: “Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” The Israelites’ ancient journey informs our walk with the Lord in our modern-day world. If the Jewish people trusted the cloud and the fire, the Presence of God, they stayed on the correct route. When they whined, complained, and transgressed deciding that they could not trust God’s direction, their lives fell apart. They even wanted to go back to Egypt rather than follow the pillar of cloud and fire. Instructive for us!

     When we keep our eyes on God for direction, we remain in the best place possible. Rocks and ruts may fill the road but the right direction is Ever Present. Looking to Him, His word and His counsel sustains us just as He sustained the children of Israel for 40 long years. Sometimes, even our fancy GPS systems are confusing.

Yet, the Lord never fails us. Day and night, let’s continue to look to Him, our true GPS!