Living in the Land Between

There are seasons when what was is already gone, but what will be has not yet arrived.

Israel knew that place. Egypt was behind them. The Promised Land was ahead. Between the two was wilderness.

We know that place too.

The land between is where familiar answers stop working. It is where grief and hope can occupy the same heart, where prayers sometimes seem unanswered, and where God asks us to keep walking before we can see where the road leads.

I am learning that the wilderness is not simply the space we must cross to reach the promise. Perhaps it is part of the promise, because it is there that God forms the person who will eventually enter it.