WE MOVE: INTO LIBERATION.

We had been walking for what felt like forever when the whispers began moving through the crowd again, only this time it didn't come with excitement, instead it came with fear…There was fear. People were turning around, pointing towards the distance, and trying to see through the cloud of dust rising behind us. I stood on my toes and looked too, and that was when I saw them.But, we did not walk alone.By day, a pillar of cloud went before us, guiding our way through the wilderness, and at night it became a pillar of fire, bright enough to keep the darkness from swallowing us. I did not understand it then. I only knew that whenever I looked ahead, there it was, and somehow that was enough to make me believe that we were going somewhere, even when none of us knew exactly where.Then Pharaoh came after us.The night had fallen, and fear had begun to spread through the camp when the cloud that had been travelling ahead of us moved. Slowly, it passed over us and came to stand behind us, between our people and the Egyptian army. I remember staring at it, my little mind being unable to comprehend.On one side were the Israelites, frightened and exhausted from the journey. On the other were the Egyptians, their horses and chariots waiting in the darkness. And between us stood the cloud, thick and impossible, hiding us from them while they could not come near us.It was as though God Himself had drawn a line between us and the people who had held us captive for generations.They could see us, but they could not reach us.For the first time since we left Egypt, I understood that perhaps the God who had brought us out was not merely leading us forward.He was standing behind us too.I looked at his face and saw despair, not even dread, despair was written on his face.The horses were running towards us, their hooves beating against the ground as the chariots followed closely behind them. The same Egypt we had spent years praying to escape was now coming after us, and suddenly the joy of leaving seemed to disappear from everyone's faces. Mothers pulled their children closer, men began arguing, and some people cried out to Moses, asking why he had brought us this far only to leave us trapped.I remember looking ahead and understanding, perhaps for the first time, why everyone was afraid.There was nowhere to go, it looked like we were stuck.The sea stretched endlessly before us, too wide to cross and too deep to walk through, while Pharaoh's army was closing in behind us. I looked at my father, hoping he would know what to do, but even he seemed uncertain. For the first time since we had left Egypt, I saw fear in the face of the man who had always told me not to be afraid.Then Moses walked towards the sea.There was something about the way he moved that made the noise around us grow quieter. He lifted the staff in his hand, and the wind began to rise. At first, it brushed against my face gently, but within moments it had become so strong that I had to hold on to my mother's clothes. The sand flew around us, people covered their faces, and the sea before us began to stir. Then it happened.The waters began to move away from us.I could not understand what I was seeing. The sea, the very thing that had stood between us and safety, was opening before our eyes. Water rose on either side, higher and higher, until it seemed as though we were standing between two enormous walls of glass. The path that appeared in the middle was dry, and somehow, impossibly, it stretched all the way to the other side.Nobody needed to tell us to move, We began to walk, Then we ran.I held my mother's hand as tightly as I could while we followed the thousands of people moving through the path. Children were crying and laughing at the same time, mothers were calling their children's names, men were helping the elderly across, and everywhere I looked there were people carrying whatever they had managed to take with them from Egypt. The sound of our footsteps seemed to blend with the sound of the wind, and above us the waters stood as though they had forgotten how to fall.I kept looking up.I was afraid that if I looked away for too long, the sea would remember itself and come crashing down on us.But it held its ground and stood like a wall.We kept moving until the ground beneath our feet began to feel less frightening and the other side came closer. I could hear people shouting with relief, and somewhere ahead, someone had begun to laugh. We were almost there.Then I heard the sound of the chariots again.I turned around and saw that pharaoh's army had followed us into the sea.For a moment, I could see them clearly between the walls of water, still chasing us as though they believed they could bring us back. I remember wondering how anyone could still think they had power over us after everything we had witnessed.Then Moses stretched out his hand again.The waters moved.And this time, they did not stand.They came rushing back with a force that shook the earth beneath our feet. The sound was deafening, and I watched from the other side as the sea swallowed the road we had just walked through, covering the army that had followed us from Egypt.Then there was nothing.Only the sea.I stood there for a long moment, still holding my mother's hand, staring at the water that had become our road and then returned to being a sea.Behind that water was Egypt, slavery, fear and everything we had spent generations praying to escape.And for the first time, I understood what my father had meant when he told me that night to hold on to my mother's hand. We were not simply leaving Egypt. We were leaving everything that had ever told us we could not be free.

Other insights from Stargirl.

Referral Earning

Points-to-Coupons