Springs in the Desert

Years ago, I traveled to New Mexico each year to teach at a writing conference. One year, as the plane banked for landing, the woman next to me sighed and said, “Isn’t it beautiful!” I managed a nod, but what I saw was bleak, barren, dusty, reddish-brown desert. Conversely, she saw the beauty of a familiar landscape. She turned to me, and said, “It’s always such a joy to see the place where I grew up. I love returning home!”

Perspective

As a native South Carolinian, the landscape that is home is lush and green. Seeing the sparse New Mexico desert didn’t do much for me. But that day on the plane, I realized beauty is all about perspective. What looked blah to me, filled my seatmate’s heart with joy.

Are you living, or barely surviving, in a desolate desert place? Has your world shifted, leaving you searching for beauty, but not finding it?

Some days, I struggle to discover anything beautiful about Jim’s death. I’m searching for that hopeful, bubbling spring in the desert place that is my current circumstances. But then, I remember he has a new body, free from physical ailments and chronic illness. He is experiencing paradise and has no memory of desert places in his life. That’s when I realize the need for a perspective adjustment.

Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness came when he was at his lowest, hungry, perhaps physically weak, having endured a desert place for forty days. That’s when Satan tempted him. In response, Jesus quoted scripture. When Satan left Jesus, angels came and attended him.

In my desert place, Satan tempts me with regret for the forty-five minutes I was gone while Jim died. Satan whispers, “You should have been there. You should have recognized something that could have saved your husband’s life.”

When Satan speaks, scripture floods my mind, and I can banish the devil, the liar. My perspective shifts as I realize God had me gone from home on purpose. Only He knew Jim’s life was coming to an end.

Beauty

In 2015, Jim and I traveled to Arizona to visit Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio. On that trip, we also visited other sites of interest. In these desert places, we saw beauty—color, water, and the unusual.

Saguaro cacti, native to the Sonoran Desert (part of which extends to Arizona), are large and tree-like, with upward arms. Saguaros are covered with protective spines. In spring, saguaros flower, and in summer, they produce red fruit.

Frank Lloyd Wright recognized the uniqueness and beauty of saguaros. In 1927, Wright created a colored pencil drawing, “Saguaro Forms and Cactus Flowers,” for Liberty Magazine. The drawing was never published, deemed too radical. In the 1970’s, Wright’s widow commissioned a stained-glass piece based on the drawing and presented it as a gift to the Arizona Biltmore for its grand reopening.

We made an unplanned stop at the Arizona Biltmore when we learned the stained-glass piece was located there. We also took exterior shots of the hotel, a design largely influenced by Wright.

Our visit to Taliesin West included a behind-the-scenes tour and lunch. The compound fits seamlessly into the surrounding landscape, one of the elements for which Wright’s designs are known.

In the desert places in your life, look beyond the thorns, and expect to find unique beauty in unexpected places. God could have made our world a drab, colorless place. Instead, he filled our world with color and majesty for us to enjoy.

You may be struggling to see anything beautiful about your current circumstances, but don’t give up. Keep looking. Keep expecting. On the hardest part of your desert journey, springs will surface.

Something New

Perhaps, like me, you don’t want something new in your life. You were fine with the status quo. I was glad for the beginning of a year that promised calmness. No surgeries on the calendar. Nothing really hard to tackle.

The morning of Jim’s death, I wrote in my prayer journal, “Thank you, Lord, that everything is relatively calm.”

Four hours later, that calm evaporated and I was plunged into the desert of shock and disbelief. I thought I was living the very worst that day, but a month later, the shock wore off, and I stepped fully into the desert of grief.

I am working on embracing the new thing God is doing in my life. Bit-by-bit I perceive it. He is giving me words, sometimes so fast I can hardly document them. I know more “new things” are in my future. As I slowly make forward motion, I’m trusting God for each step, each new thing that takes me ahead on this desert journey.

You, too, may be facing new, unwanted things in your life. Together, let’s trust God for refreshing springs in the desert as we travel through, and beyond, to something new.

“Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19 ESV).

©CandyArrington

Candy Arrington is a writer, blogger, speaker, and freelance editor. She often writes on tough topics with a focus on moving through, and beyond, difficult life circumstances. Candy has written hundreds of articles, stories, and devotionals published by numerous outlets including: Inspiration.org, Arisedaily.com, CBN.com, Healthgrades.com, Care.com, Focus on the Family, NextAvenue.org, CountryLiving.com, and Writer’s Digest. Candy’s books include Life on Pause: Learning to Wait Well (Bold Vision Books), When Your Aging Parent Needs Care (Harvest House), and AFTERSHOCK: Help, Hope, and Healing in the Wake of Suicide (B&H Publishing Group).

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