I watched "Prince of Egypt" tonight and I was amazed, as I always am, at the miracles that these people got to witness. What an obvious testament of the love and concern that their Heavenly Father had for them. I especially love the part where they are crossing the Red Sea and both they and the Egyptians are overcome with awe and wonder at the grandeur of what they're seeing.

It got me thinking, though, about how easy of a task it really was to cross the Red Sea. How big was it? Don't worry, I looked it up on wikipedia. Let me tell you. The Red Sea is 220.6 miles wide at its widest point. By looking at the map, it doesn't look like there are any super skinny parts, so I'm guessing that even if they crossed at the narrowest point, it had to have still been more than 100 miles wide. 100 MILES. They were running from an Egyptian army who was still pursuing them with the intent to kill, they come up to a giant sea that they probably can't even see the other side of, and the Lord parts it. Incredible, right? But then they still had to walk across it. At least 100 miles across it. And on top of that, the average depth of the Red Sea is 1,608 feet. So on top of the 100 miles across that they had to walk, they had to first go down at least a quarter of a mile, walk across what I assume could only be a rocky and uneven, maybe even sludgy, seabed, then climb at least another quarter of a mile out before they made it to the other shore.

This completely changed the story for me. Obviously, the miracle was still there and it was still incredible. They walked through a sea on (relatively) dry ground with walls of water on both sides. That doesn't mean it was easy, though. Their deliverance was at the hand of the Lord and it was miraculous, but it also required a lot of work and endurance and effort on their part. The Lord didn't simply teleport them to their desired destination. That effort, though, didn't make their deliverance any less real or any less divine.

What I know is this: the Lord is intensely aware of our needs and desires and He is aching to help us. He will not, however, do for us what we can do for ourselves. He expects us to work and toil and struggle to find our way. The effort He requires of us, though, does not mean that we are working alone or that He is not involved. We are surrounded by miracles, but more often than not they are miracles we must work through. The trick is to learn to recognize the miracle, even amidst our strife. We must recognize that even though our path is sometimes rocky, the fact that He's given us the path (the Gospel) at all is a miracle. The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this dispensation (or this time period)is a miracle, but it's a miracle that many people have worked for and, in some cases, died for. That doesn't make it any less of a miracle.

Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the apostles from my church said this:

"Of course our faith will be tested as we fight through these self-doubts and second thoughts. Some days we will be miraculously led out of Egypt—seemingly free, seemingly on our way—only to come to yet another confrontation, like all that water lying before us. At those times we must resist the temptation to panic and to give up. At those times fear will be the strongest of the adversary's weapons against us.

'And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. . . . The Lord shall fight for you.'"

We will struggle and we will work. Sometimes it will seem like we are doing it all ourselves, and in those times we may wonder if we've made the right choices or taken the right path. I'm sure some of those Israelites were thinking there must've been a better way as they were walking that hundred miles across the Red Sea. But we cannot let Satan blind our view and keep us from seeing how blessed we really are, and how much the Lord really has provided for us.

Life requires effort, but life is a miracle.