Over and over again, the Lord tells the people to be careful that they don’t fall into the trap of worshipping the gods of the people who live in Promised Land.  They are not to even worship Him in the foreign ways, but only in the ways they have been taught.  Clearly, God knew what a temptation it would be for them to be curious about the foreign gods.

I learned something new today that I did not know about the Promised Land.  It never occurred to me to question why the Lord picked that particular geographic location out of all the others in the world that He created.  Yet choose it He did, and for a reason!

¹⁰ The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. ¹² It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

I wonder if the Lord constantly watches over ALL areas of the world he created?  Even the flat prairies of north Texas?

This has been quite a winter, both in actual weather and in my spirits.  Yet I thank the Lord with all my heart for his tender mercies!  The snow on the ground and above-normal rainfall filled area reservoirs to capacity.  When we moved back to Texas nearly four years ago, the area was in a horrible drought.  The lakes dried up so much that previously undiscovered dinosaur fossils were found, and water restrictions were strictly enforced.  The temperature was 106 — but even then, I knew that those conditions would not last forever.  Partly, because my previous experience in Texas showed me that droughts are usually erased by floods, but also because I knew that God had his eyes on his creation.  The One who counted the feathers of a sparrow also measures out rainfall drop by drop.

Maybe one day I will get to visit the Holy Lands to see for myself this place that the Lord brought His people.  For now, I am content to imagine what it must have been like for those people readying to cross the Jordan…

They were in God’s care and under his watchful eye….as are we who have been grafted onto the vine through the love of Jesus.