The majesty of the Lord is so evident through these chapters.  Tonight I am weary and sick in my body, but my heart perks up to read these reminders of just how Great our God is:

….to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

…¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

…¹⁴ To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

I was unable to attend church today due to illness — I sat in the waiting room of a local clinic instead.  My soul feels the loss of worship today, and I chastise myself because my worship of the Lord ought to be something that happens all the time, whether in church or in the store or in the car or in the backyard or, yes, even while resting in bed.

Instead, I buried my head in a book (Emma, by Jane Austen) to occupy my mind.  I am not a good patient.  I hate antibiotics because of my phobias about nausea.  I fight an internal battle every time I swallow a pill.  I look at it with trepidation, knowing that the medicine it contains will help my body fight off the infection, but that it also might make me feel ill.

Yet I rejoice.  The same Lord who provided for the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness is the one who heals.  I came across a verse today that completely smacked me in the heart: their clothes did not wear out….for forty years!  Our Heavenly Father cares about and provides for the little things as well as the big ones — from clothing that supernaturally stays together to modern medicine and immune systems that defeat infections.