A Forgotten Miracle

I was doing laundry today and while I was taking my clothes out of the dryer, it got me thinking...

You know how back when the Israelites where wandering around the wilderness for 40 years? Well, there were many amazing miracles that happened in their lives. They saw many, many miracles and wonders just in trying to escape Egypt. Then there was the parting of the Red Sea, the daily manna, water from the rocks, and the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

Today the miracle that came to mind today is a little less exciting, a little less well-know. Maybe even a little "boring." It was about how their clothes and shoes did not wear out during the whole 40 years that they wandered the wilderness. It's one of those miracles that you can easily overlook. It's only mentioned in about three verses (as best as I could tell).

Deuteronomy 29:5  And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

Deuteronomy 8:4  Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

 Nehemiah 9:21  Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

Even as you read these verses, it doesn't seem like a big deal. Clothes didn't wear out; shoes didn't wear out. Yawn. OK, moving on.

But wait! Think about it! The clothes they wore every day did not wear out for 40 years! The shoes they wore, often while traveling on foot for days at a time, didn't wear out for 40 years! They gained weight, lost weight, kids grew into adults, and yet their clothes still fit and hadn't worn out. Their shoes didn't become "holey." The soles didn't wear out.

Now, I don't know about you. Maybe I am just super rough on shoes, but I feel like I have done well if a pair of boots is useable a second winter. Or if a pair of sandals make it through daily use for another summer. And clothes... From year to year, how many things wear out? You wash something and it shrinks. Over time the colors fade, the material wears thin, the edges fray, the zippers break, you catch on stuff and tear holes, you spill stuff and have stains, and I am sure the list could go on.

My point is that time naturally has a negative affect on the lifespan of our clothing. It does not last more than a couple years even in our day and age. And let's not forget the lifestyle differences either. These people were living in tents in a desert. They were nomadic and traveled a lot! In comparison our lives are very much indoors and "soft." Also, they most likely wore the same clothes every day and I am not sure how they cleaned them. If anything, the clothes and shoes they wore should have worn out much faster than ours do today.

So in reality this was a pretty big miracle. After all this wasn't just for one or two people, but thousands and thousands of people. And it was for 40 years! Other than the daily manna, what other miracle lasted 40 years?

Perhaps if we kept this miracle in mind it wouldn't be so hard to believe one made by Jesus to us...

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  Mark 6:28-34