And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? (NIV)

Confession time – I’m a terrible housekeeper. My house is clean, but it is also messy. I think it’s because I can get blind to the things sitting around that have been there forever. I just keep walking past them and never even notice them – that is, until I do…

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Weird, huh?  

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Sometimes I feel like my faith is like that too: It’s there. I talk to God. I pray and read my Bible, but I just keep walking past what He has for me. I become blind to it – going through the motions and doing FOR God rather than WITH God.  

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I’m not so different than the ancient Israelites…

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We meet the Israelites on the border of the Promised Land. Caleb, Joshua, and the gang of “spies” had just returned from checking out the land with reports of “a land flowing with milk and honey” (just as God had promised). But, there were also huge men – giants – in the land, and this scared the other Israelites. While Caleb had a rallying cry of, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30), the naysayers argued, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are. The land through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height” (Num. 13:31-32).  

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Numbers 14:1-3 says, “Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’” Then, to make matters worse, the people threaten to stage a coup.  

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The story proceeds as the men of faith – Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua – dropped to their faces and cried out to the people to NOT rebel against God and remember that God is faithful. He had given a good land to them, and he would protect them and guide them. Their response? “Stone them!” “But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel” (Num. 14:10b).

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God had had enough: “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” (Num. 14:11).

What about us? How long will you walk past that sock on the stairs, blind to the fact that it is there, in plain sight? How long will you not see the beauty that is right in front of you? How long will you miss the miracle of life that is coursing through your body? How long…

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See, I think we sometimes miss out on the might, power, glory, compassion, grace, and love of God because we only see the current circumstances that we are sitting in – just like the Israelites. The people of Israel had escaped the Egyptians THROUGH the Red Sea, watched the pursuing soldiers wiped out when the waters returned, were fed with manna and quail from heaven, and followed the presence of God in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And yet, they could only see the current circumstances they were in – the fear of the people of the land.  

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Are you currently in a situation that makes it hard to see the glory of God that is right in front of you? You’re in good company – we all do that sometimes. We miss the forest for the trees. We miss the beauty of the mountains covered in snow because we long for spring. We miss the beauty of our spouse and community because we long for a child. We miss the love of our family because of the loss of a loved one.  

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Friend, God is not calling you to not mourn those things, just as he wasn’t calling the Israelites to blindly go into a land of giants. What he wants from us is to invite him into it. Go WITH God into those painful circumstances. Let him be your provision, your strength, your peace, and your courage. May we be a people who see God in all our circumstances because he is there, guiding, loving, protecting, and encouraging us along.  

Father God, you are so, so faithful. Forgive us for the times we become blind to who you are and miss your faithfulness. Like the sock on the stair, we amble through life without seeing that you are right there with us. God, let us invite you into our lives – the good and the bad. Help us to walk WITH you through our struggles and our triumphs. In the mighty name of your Son Jesus, Amen!