Exodus 15:25-26
And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

The waters were made sweet, and indeed life is made sweet by the entrance of that other Tree of Life, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the doorway through which we may enter and receive eternal life hereafter, but even for now, a new life and one of fulfillment in Him.  That bitterness which we previously had no choice but to drink has been changed into something life-giving, and now we may kneel at that fountain and drink in its sweetness to our heart’s content.

And at that place where we knelt and prayed and entered in to that sweet relationship with Christ, we made this same covenant with our holy Father to hearken to His voice and do what He tells us is right to do and to obey His commands, standing on His promises, because, in essence, we have exchanged our lives for His life in ours.  And indeed He is the God who heals, for our sin-sick souls have been redeemed and the disease that had penetrated so deeply and wound its way around our hearts and made our souls pitch black has been cured by the precious blood of Jesus, and we have been made whole in Him.

And so since we have had our moment at that shore, since we have been washed by the blood, since we have been buried in those baptismal waters to rise again as a new creature, then may we continue forward in the service of our King.  May we refuse to wander down the crooked yet enticing path that stretches before us into disobedience.  May our murmurings and complaints be silenced by the remembrance of the great deliverance of our souls from their own Egypt, and may we never forget that our God is a great and mighty God, and He is a good God and He gives to us good things from His eternal storehouse.

And when we have toiled on in some hardship or fallen into some snare of the devil or crumbled in some brokenness, may we then look back at the altar built beside those waters and remember the Lord who heals us—that He has healed us once before and can heal us again and is a continual source of comfort for whatever we may face.  Whatever bitterness this life may bring us can be made sweet in the presence of our Savior as we look to Him and seek Him in it.