When I heard Leeland’s rendition of the song, Waymaker, toward the end of last year, I had an internal “knowing” that Waymaker was to be my name of God for the year 2020. I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 43:19). This was long before I knew anything about the coronavirus pandemic, but it occurred to me that if Waymaker was to be my name of God for the year, perhaps there were difficulties in store for us. Little did I know that difficulties were in store for the entire world. And little did I know how much we would need a Waymaker.
The United States and the world have found themselves in an unprecedented situation that we are ill-equipped to handle. Farmers are dumping milk they can’t market, small businesses and large are closing their doors, either because they’ve not been deemed “essential” or because they have no money to pay their bills. Lawmakers can’t agree on the best strategies to overcome our dilemma.
In the midst of this, it seems like a good time to meditate on biblical examples of people facing mind-boggling challenges when God lived up to His name. There are many.
• When the Children of Israel found themselves facing the Red Sea in Exodus 14, pursued by the Egyptian army, God revealed Himself as the Waymaker. Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14;21-22)
• Once again when God instructed the Children of Israel in Joshua 3 to cross the Jordon River during flood stage into the Promised Land, He revealed Himself as the Waymaker. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away…while the water flowing down to the Sea of Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. (Joshua 3:15-16) We’re told that the priests and the people crossed on dry ground!
• In Luke 8, Jesus and his disciples set out to cross over to the other side of the lake. While Jesus slept, a dangerous storm came up and they were in great danger. When the terrified disciples woke him, we find that once again, He made a way. Verse 24 tells us: He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided and all was calm.
In viewing these and many other biblical examples, as well as examples from our own lives, I would say “making a way” is one of God’s specialties. Here are examples of times when He made a way for us.
• In 1981 God called us to return to Sandy Lake and sing full time for a year, then made a way for us to sell our house in Pittsburgh to a buyer with cash when interest rates were extremely high.
• In 1981, Donn left his job as an electrical engineer so we could sing full time. When that year was over, God provided him with the best job of his life teaching at Shenango Campus of Penn State.
• In 2003, God called us to serve as missionaries in Japan, one of the most expensive places to live in the world, then provided all the funds we needed for the four years we were there, plus other short-term prayer trips.
• In 2011, God called us back to the USA after our service in Japan, then enabled us to buy a house, with everything we needed in a retirement home, without a mortgage.
Those are all big examples, but I could give you many smaller ones that have convinced us that God is interested not only in our large needs, but also in our small ones. So whatever your needs in the midst of this pandemic, be they financial, emotional, spiritual or physical, we believe our Waymaker wants to make a way for those needs to be met. He wants you to cry out to Him as the disciples did in the middle of their storm and reveal Himself to you as your Waymaker.
Heavenly Father, you are the One who said, Is anything too difficult for me? (Jeremiah 32:27) Increase our faith so we will turn to you as our Waymaker, the One who makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Amen.
