Journey Along the River Nile

How would you like to take a boat journey down the Nile River to the Mediterranean Sea?   

Not your ideal holiday?   Perhaps your preference would be cruising down the Rhine, looking at magnificent European castles.  Or sailing around the islands of the Pacific.  Or biking your way through the lanes of Britain.   

I imagine there aren't many who would choose a boat trip down the Nile River if they had to choose just one international holiday.  

Well, that's what my 10yo Miss said to me the other day, when I posed this question as part of her writing assignment on the pictured library book.   It's part of our present studies on the continent of Africa.   The book is very well presented, for those of you interested in Africa, or homeschooling.  I really enjoyed it and she would have too, if it wasn't a 'forced' writing exercise.  

She really struggled to come up with the required four lines of a written answer of what she would like to see and do as she sailed down the Nile River to its mouth.  In fact, she pouted and growled for hours.   She'd read the book, answered lots of questions about what there is to see and do, including all the dangers, but she just is NOT interested in going there, thank you very much!   

It got me thinking that perhaps we're like that with God.   Has God chosen a journey for you that is very different to what you wanted, what you imagined your life to look like right now?    Are you sailing down the Nile with all its dangers, when you'd much rather be on a gondolier in Venice or sitting on a beach somewhere or just cruising through an easy life?    Have you hit the rapids in your journey or maybe you're just plain fed up with the lack of progress in making it to the end of this forced exercise.  You didn't choose it and you don't like it, thank you very much!!  

But God is a loving parent, because He knows what we need, and that we don't want it, and won't want it, given the choice.    He knows that one day we'll look back and be so very grateful for all that we learnt on this treacherous journey, the one we thought would never end, the one that made us stronger and kinder and more thankful, the one that showed us who we are and who He really is for us and in us.    

I, for one, would LOVE to go to Africa and yes, to see the Nile, but to be a part of what God is doing there.   I'd love to meet the people, see the sights, see Africa's magnificent animals in something other than a zoo, see the needs and somehow to meet just one of those needs.    But for now, my journey is a different one.  But perhaps the journey I'm on now will make me stronger and kinder and more thankful, so that when I do get to Africa at last, I will be able to minister Him to those I see.   

Romans 8:28   And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.