Wednesdays in the Word: Verse S

I'm terrible at memorizing Scripture. I'm sure somewhere out there is a carefully funded study that shows the average number of times a person has to see or hear something to memorize it. I like to think of myself as above average. Whatever that average is...quadruple it and that's me. On a good day.

But this verse is one I remember memorizing early on...in the oddest of places.

A novel.

I grew up reading Janette Oke novels. {I'm not old, of course, but "back then," she was about the only Christian romance author, and I devoured every book she wrote.}

It was book three in the Love Comes Softly series {vastly different than the movies based on the books} that chronicled the journey of Missie and Willie as they headed west in a covered wagon. And this verse was Missie's verse as she traveled. She quoted it all the time - and even gave their son the middle name of Isaiah based on this verse.

{I cannot remember to call for an oil change on my car, but I recalled all of that off the top of my head.}

I tell you all of that not because you care how I learned verses, but because it gave me such a unique connection to this verse. Obviously the book I read was a novel, but the point was real. The character Missie was fictional, but she represented real people who really did kiss their families goodbye - not knowing if it would be forever - and head west into the unknown. They took all their possessions in wooden boxes the size of one of our cars - sheltered only by canvas and pulled by horses. They faced injuries and disease and death and harsh weather...and had to march ahead with whatever knowledge they had.

And people like Missie really would have clung to that verse - begging God to help them avoid fear and dismay. Looking to Him for strength and help.

Today I'm a modern day Missie. I'm a girl facing an unknown of my own as I wait for God to guide the direction of our future. As I wait for a home to sell. Not knowing when or if I'll be asked to kiss my family goodbye and head into the unknown. Packing up my possessions and moving them to a new place and a new chapter of life.

And I hold to this verse for very different reasons as she did. {Or as those she represented did.}

The verse was true in Old Testament times when it was written. It was true for those headed to the promising west of America. And it is true for this day, for me and for you.