One morning our automatic garage-door opener was broken. When I told five-year-old Ava to get into the car so I could take her to school, she reluctantly went to the car, but returned quickly after pressing the button and noticing that the door did not open. Sounding hopeless and with tears streaming down her face, she  said, ‘If we go into the garage we will be trapped. We won’t be able to get out!’ When I walked into the garage and manually opened the door, she settled down and took her seat. As Ava dried her tears, I assured her that I would never send her to a place where she could be trapped, lost or hurt.

This moment of reassuring Ava brought the Israelites to mind. What must they have felt as they stood at the edge of the Red Sea, just before God parted it? Like Ava in trying to open the garage door, I realise that I too sometimes need to hear words of reassurance – especially when my attempts to cope seem feeble and insufficient. I need to hear that God will truly never leave me or forsake me and that even when I am at the edge of my ‘Red Sea’, hotly pursued, God can make an unseen way clear.

Prayer: Dear God, when we cannot see the way forward, help us to trust that you will make a way clear. Amen