Every time I sit down at our table, my eyes land on these cities where we’ve lived. Each one represents deep friendships, good times, and also detours; each place had its construction zone with roadblocks that took us the long way around.

Even more confusing, though, are the gaps in between each frame that connect one location to the next. Transitions in life don’t come with mapped-out bridges; they feel more like gray space off the grid, too blurry to be captured in an actual piece of art.

The Israelites’ bridge out of Egypt took forty gap years in an obscure desert. When they were finally entering the Promised Land, Moses spoke this reminder to them in Deuteronomy 8:2, “Remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years…”

What could be described as wandering in the wilderness was still a season under God’s leadership, and recalling the ways He led them could equip their faith to move forward. Faith for the next step begins not by envisioning an imaginary future, but by looking back on the past, recognizing that we have a God who leads us the whole way, even across the gaps between the maps.