THERE IS A PLACE

If you take time to put Scripture into your heart and mind, you never know when it is going to surface suddenly . I was driving round and round, floor after floor, of the hospital parking garage looking for a parking space. Several times, diligently scanning the backs of diagonally parked cars, I was sure from a distance that I had discovered a parking space. When I got there, I was disappointed. The space wasn't empty at all. It was occupied by a compact car. The protruding rear ends of two larger vehicles in bordering spaces hid the back of the compact making the space appear empty. If you drive, you have experienced that disappointment of thinking you had found the parking place you were seeking only to discover it was already taken. The driver than responds with a frustrated, "I just can’t find a place to park." As this happened to me this week, one of those Scriptures suddenly surfaced above my mundane reeling of thoughts. It was a verse that records the words of God to Moses. "There is a place by Me," God declared to Moses (Exodus 33:21). That place was a cleft in the rock where God would place Moses, cover him with His hand, and as He passed by, remove His hand long enough that Moses might seeing the disappearing glory of His presence. Sometimes we need a parking place. We have an appointment, a purchase need, etc. Sometimes we are almost desperate for a place. It is disappointingly frustrating not to find one. Often spiritually we begin to feel our need of a place. We long for a place where we experience God's presence, have our faith renewed, are recalibrated, renewed, and restored. We long for a place where we meet God afresh. We need not be despaired. If we would listen, we would hear, "There is a place by Me."