Red Sea Moments are Moments to Cherish

The crack of brokenness continued to grow far and wide, much like a spider web, as continued pressures were applied to the surface. I looked at my clay vase with great disappointment after I had dropped it and saw the long crack that was left behind. I learned the degree of frailty that was inflicted upon my cracked vase after dusting one day. I sat it down on the carpeted floor, in order to clear off a surface to dust, and it toppled over. As I lifted the fallen vase, I saw that the crack had grown, only increasing its frailty.

Surprisingly, more than ten years later, I still have that broken vase, and it now sits on our mantle. When I see its cracks, I don’t see an eye sore, but rather a story. The story I see begins with brokenness, a brokenness that seemed to continue to grow, but the story doesn’t stop there. Instead, I look at the vase with a grateful smile because I am reminded of a story that was rerouted due to God’s great intervention and answered prayers. These stories, these moments in life that God gives us, are the ones that I refer to as “Red Sea Moments.”

When I met my husband more than 16 years ago, I looked much like that broken vase, whose cracks seemed to grow with any and every applied pressure. I was so guarded when I met him, and I didn’t want to let someone else into my life that would add to my pain. Much to my surprise, the opposite would be true of letting him in. All the prayers that I had prayed for much of my life- for an unbroken family, for a place of wholeness, for a place where I would be free from choosing between my parents, and for a place where each choice I made wouldn’t cause the broken places in my life to grow and spread- these pleas were suddenly being answered and tremendous mending was beginning to take place. I was experiencing a true Red Sea moment, a moment where a way that only God could provide was being opened up before me.

The more time my husband and I spent together, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was broken and needed healing. While we were still dating, I finally opened up and shared with him how I had prayed fervently from a very young age to have a family of my own that was whole and complete, free from the harm of brokenness. At that moment of me sharing that with him, his eyes met mine, and he then revealed that he too had been praying for the exact same thing from a very young age. Our broken places were so similar and God had graciously brought our hearts together. Our longings were the same and, therefore, what we would cherish would be the same as well.
The roads that we had both traveled were very broken, but as the song goes, “God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you.” My husband and I did not meet each other by chance or coincidence. No, it was an intentional answered prayer for both of us that we had both been uttering before the Lord long before we even knew one another. It was a pathway, a Red Sea moment that had been opened up by God for us both.

Although the vase bares the marks of brokenness, it is still held together for a couple of reasons. The first being that we knew that its strength was already compromised so we have had to continue to handle it with extreme, intentional care. Next, we didn’t leave the cracks as they were. We bought a clear bonding to put in the cracks to help hold what was broken together. And so it was with God as He was seeking to handle and heal both of our lives, bonding all those broken places.

As I look into the faces of those who make up the family I have now, and I look up at the mantle and see the broken vase that has now been mended, I reminded of how I am living each day in an answered prayer. God intervened and rerouted our life story by providing us with a Red Sea moment!

I haven’t always felt this way about my life story though. For a long time I battled with having resentment, bitterness, and feeling short changed over the reality of the first half of my life not being what I wanted it to be. As time has gone on, God has allowed me to see His grand work in my life on a magnified level. I have learned to be thankful for the perspective of my past, while also being thankful that it is not today’s reality. I have learned to be thankful for both sides of my story because without both parts, I would not cherish the grand entrance of God’s miraculous work in my life.

The fact that the Israelites were standing with their toes to a vast body of water as a powerful army was moving in with no place of escape, only makes the splitting of the Red Sea much more powerful and purposeful. You see God intervene in a mighty way, providing a way where there was no way, and changed their life story.

God intervenes in mighty ways, providing a way where there is no way, and changes our life story! 

These stories are powerful testimonies of God’s present day work in our lives, but the greatest Red Sea moment that God has provided for us all is the empty tomb! Jesus dying and coming to life again is the greatest Red Sea moment that any of us can experience. It’s an experience that allows us to be thankful for both sides of the story- before Jesus and after Jesus- because knowing both sides of the story allows us to know, understand, and cherish God making the one, true way for us!