Bellevue, Washington
When I was given my first full-time teaching assignment, I was ecstatic. After a year of substitute teaching, I was finally in charge of my own classroom. I spent hours tirelessly setting up the room and preparing for my students. On the first day, my feet hardly touched the floor as I welcomed each child to our classroom.
After a couple of days, my principal came by my room after school. With honesty and regret, he told me that the school’s enrollment was lower than expected and that it was likely I would have to be let go as I was the newest teacher.
Within two days, my excitement turned to sadness as I walked my students to their new classrooms. After school let out, I boxed up my teaching dreams and supplies and moved them back to my one-room apartment where they sat in plain sight along one wall.
As I stared at the boxes, I felt my desire to teach was crammed into them along with my teaching materials. I had trouble finding any bit of hope.
Suddenly, God reminded me of His promise in Isaiah 43:18-19, “Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
As hard as it was, I whispered God’s Word and believed He could and would bring an opportunity. He gave me this desire. He would create a space for me. I clung to this belief like a life raft that stays afloat in turbulent waters.
A couple of days later, my phone rang. On the other end was a different principal who knew me from substitute teaching at his school. He needed to hire a teacher immediately because his school’s attendance was higher than expected. My first principal had given me a glowing recommendation. Combining that approval with his own observations, he hired me.
Two days after closing up my first classroom, I was setting up another classroom. God made a way even when the future appeared to be a desert wasteland.
