Spring up O Well! Singing to the Well and Shouting to the Med School Mountain

I have a feeling this will be a big week for my son who has applied to med school.  All the schools are sending out their requests for an interview now.  Sadly, he has already been told by two schools that he didn't get an interview.  In some senses we weren't really surprised as there are only a 200 spots and nearly 6000 apply to each school.  His MCAT mark was solid, but there are lots who did better than he did, we are sure.  His average was awesome, but many get higher marks.  This is what we know - if God wants him in, then something will make his application shine.

Years ago, when I applied to teacher's college I remember feeling the same way.  I had average marks, fairly good experience, but thousands of people were applying.  Why would they choose me?  That winter/spring was the first time I ever fasted.  I fasted once a week while I was in my 4th year at school every Monday.  At dinner I would meet with another woman who was also fasting and that's when we would break the fast and eat together.  It was a powerful experience because I had never done that before and also because I got in to Queen's which was the exact school I had hoped to get into as it had an international job fair (the only one of its kind).  And getting into Queen's really shaped me into who I am today as I ended up overseas for two years teaching in Colombia.  That experience all came out of a few months of fasting on Mondays.  I didn't get in to any other school.

This past week, my son started fasting and two of my older daughters also started fasting on his behalf.  We aren't just praying for him that God will be our genie.  No, everyone is praying for God's will.  One of my girls came down and excitedly said she had read the verse in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  That amazed me.  Just the day before he had heard from Queen's that he hadn't gotten an interview.  When you feel rejected hopelessness sinks in.  He started to question everything.  What would he do if he didn't get in?  Would he have to rewrite the MCAT?  Last summer was so hard....studying around the clock, getting shingles from the stress...he wasn't sure he could handle that again.  He was starting to borrow sorrow from tomorrow.  He didn't know his sister was praying for him.  The next day he came down and he started to talk about what life would be like if he did get into the final school.  Would he move in with roommates?  Would he need to buy furniture?  What about grocery shopping for a bachelor?  What would that be like?  He didn't know it, but someone had prayed hope into him.  I could hear it in his voice.  The despair was gone.  Later my praying daughter said, "I know that God doesn't have to get him into school.  I'm praying that J will be ok if he doesn't get in, but I also know God could get him in and I'm praying that HE WILL!"  

Yesterday as I was reading in Numbers, I read a passage I had never noticed before - chapter 21.  As usual, the Israelites were complaining about the lack of food and water.  It said, "The people became impatient on the way".   That's about it.  We are a little impatient, at least I am.  They said, "We loathe this worthless food".  Yikes.  So God sent them "fiery serpents" that bit a lot of people and killed them.  After praying to Moses, God relented.  As the chapter continued, I had forgotten about the whole food and water thing.  It seemed like God had just ignored their request.  I'm not sure how many days the chapter covers, but it says "they set out and camped" many times - they just seemed to have to keep going, but then suddenly God says, "Gather the people together, so that I may give them water".  So he hadn't forgotten!  This is the part I had never seen before.  The next verse said, "Then Israel sang this song, 

Spring up, O well! - Sing to it! - "

This phrase was from a song I had sung as a kid years ago.  No one had ever told me it came from a verse in Numbers!  Next it said, "the well that the princes made, that the nobles dug, with the scepters, and with their staffs."  An interesting revelation started to come to me as I read this.  It seemed to me that they sang to the well before God gave them the water and then the water came and it came miraculously - It almost doesn't make sense - nobles and princes don't typically dig wells, let alone with scepters and staffs.  If you are going to dig a well, you don't use a stick.  So God must have made it bubble up from the earth or something like that.

Then it reminded me of the passage in Zechariah 4:7, "Who are you O great mountain?  Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain.  Then he shall bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of, "Grace, grace to it!"

I was excited.  I told my husband what I had read and I really wanted to tell the kids.  My son is rarely able to take in a church service these days as he is often working on a Sunday, so in order to include him we try to do something together on Sunday nights.  I was the preacher last night.  I told everyone about Numbers 21 and how the Israelites complained, were impatient and then bitten by snakes.  Then, how God hadn't forgotten them, but with many apparent delays, eventually told them to gather together.  The Israelites then sang a song to the well and a miracle happened.  I suggested we do the same in the spirit of  hope for what God could do for my son in his week ahead, either way...that we would sing to the "well of med school"- Spring up!  My daughter went to the piano and the family sang a song called "Open Space" by Housefires....how I love that song.  We sang the lyrics that basically say, I'm open to what you want to do, to move what you want to move, change what you want to change....my eyes are open wide, my heart is open wide.....this was our way of singing to the well, asking for water to come out of the impossibly dry med school well for my son.  I wanted to be thankful first, to sing first, to anticipate by faith that we know God is the only one who can get my son in.  It was a really beautiful time as we sang together and then prayed God's will for my son.

So now, we wait - we have sang to the well and we will shout to the mountain, the very high med school mountain - Grace, grace to it!  As the pastor said online yesterday, when you get very low, at the base of the mountain, and you look up and see how high the mountain is, that is the only way to understand our position, needing God's amazing grace.  You don't see it until you are low enough.  We are at the bottom of the mountain, looking up - the mountain is HUGE, SO HIGH!  But, that is the best place to be.  God can flatten the mountain if He wants.  He can bring forth water from a well with just sticks if He wants.  Either way, by getting in the humble, low position we felt yesterday, it means that if he does not get an interview from this last school, then that is God's answer and way of protecting him as well.  Getting low like that helps us accept any answer He gives even if it isn't the answer we want.  Now we wait.....