I know you know this. But just in case you've temporarily forgotten, let me remind you of a few things. 1. Hashem always has your best interest in mind. 2. Everything He does is for good. 3. He knows you better than you know yourself, therefore, He knows better what you need.
In this week's parsha, we read about Hashem taking His people out of Egypt. As they are leaving we are privy to Hashem's musings about His escape route for His people. He said, "'Perhaps the people will reconsider when they see a war, and they will return to Egypt.' So God turned the people toward the way of the Wilderness."
The Jews were leaving slavery; both physical and mental. They had led a very hard life in Egypt, to say the least, and their deliverance had finally come. Yet, God being God, knew something about the human psyche that still holds true today. No matter how bad a situation was or is that we are leaving behind, at some point or another we forget how bad it really was, and even though it defies logic we ponder returning, and sometimes, God forbid, we do return to the very same horrible situation we couldn't wait to get out of.
God had a plan for His people to prevent such a return. It was called, "the Wilderness." We've all been in our own personal wildernesses. A place that seems void of life, of direction, of purpose. We cry out to God from the wilderness and ask, "Why did you bring me here?" And perhaps we even think at times that we were better off in the slavery from whence we came.
But hold on! Hold on, even if you are in the wilderness right now. It is all part of God's plan for you. Remember that He knows you better than you know yourself, and He knows just the right path for you. Even if it includes "the Wilderness." Your Promised-Land is coming. You will get to where you need to be. But remember too, that on the way to get where you need to be, you are also just where you need to be.
