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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Rivers in the Desert

Big Open Spaces
This past week I took a road trip with family, and we spent a lot of the time driving through the desert.  A lot of time. For those of you who grew up in the desert areas of the U.S., or maybe other deserts in the world, it may not be a big deal for you to drive many miles (as much as a hundred) down a major road before you come to a town, or even a gas station.  For all the rest of us, we can hear talk of all the "big open spaces" in the West, but until we drive through them, the sizes and distances really don't register.  Where I come from, you can drive a few miles before entering the next town, but there are plenty of businesses, farms, etc. along the way.  No traveler needs to worry about, say, running out of water or gasoline while passing through.  Help and human company are always near.

Cedars in the Desert
I took plenty of pictures out the car windows (which explains their generally sub-par quality).  Then we passed a sign that announced that the parched landscape around us was the headwaters (origin point) of two major rivers in my home state.  That was a very evocative image to me--to think that my green state was watered from the desert sand so many, many miles away.  It is so Biblical.

The more I see of what God has done, the more I appreciate Him.  I can't understand how people can see the wild places in the world and still deny that God exists, or that He cares.


Since I'm late in posting this, I thought I'd just share a few of my better pictures and pair them with a Bible passage that speaks to this sense the desert left me with--a fresh awareness of God's power and miraculous provision for mankind.
Barren Heights from which Rivers Flow
The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.  But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.  I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.  I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.  I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.  I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know,  may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it. (Isaiah 41: 17-20 NIV)

2 comments:

Kamal Singarapu said...

God's plan of providing his children is so amazing. Sometimes when we least expect help from a particular place/people etc, from where God provides. Water from a desert to a fertile land is so profound.

As Christian's when our lives might look so barren outside can be used by God to enrich somebody else's life.

Good thoughts!!!

Rachel said...

Yes, this is a metaphor with so many possibilities. It's the kind of thing that may end up in one of my short stories....who knows?
I think your application is a good one. As God enriches our lives like a river in a desert, we can strive to enrich others' lives with the blessings of God. :)

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