Isaiah 35:1
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
Spending several years of my youth in California gave me the opportunity to see the difference between a fruitful valley and a desert. I spent many years in the Salinas Valley which is an agricultural area. You could drive for miles and see lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower. You could go to the hills and see acres of strawberry fields. The fruit and vegetables that this area provided literally feed the country.
On the other hand, I have driven through the Mojave Desert. I remember being in the middle of the desert and having car problems. As I sat on the side of the road, the temperature was sweltering and there was no water in sight to drink. The desert truly was barren, and if I had not happened to be on the highway with people driving by to help, it would have been a hopeless place.
God said in the verse above that the “desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” This of course is looking forward to the day when the LORD returns and sets up His kingdom on Earth. Yet, I believe we can glean some truths from this that can help us in our daily lives.
You may be going through a desert experience in your life, but there is hope that it will blossom one day. Everybody will have desert experiences, but they won’t last for ever. Maybe you are going through a desert experience in your marriage; let me encourage you to keep working through it because it won’t last forever. Maybe you are going through a desert experience in your finances. Maybe it seems as though you can’t dig yourself out of your financial desert. Let me encourage you that it won’t last forever. Maybe your life in general is going through a desert experience. There is hope that it will blossom if you will keep going. Maybe your Christian life seems as barren as the desert. Maybe your prayers seem to be hitting the ceiling or your Scripture reading time is just not productive. There is hope that it will blossom one day if you will keep going.
That hope that I am talking about is found only in Jesus Christ. One day the desert will blossom as the rose, but that will only happen when Christ returns to set up His kingdom. It is Jesus Who will bring the beauty to the desert. Likewise, only Jesus Christ can bring beauty to your desert. The answer to your desert is not turning to vices or withdrawing from others, but the answer is Jesus Christ. When you spend time with Him in the Scriptures and prayer, you will find that He alone can bring beauty to your desert. You will find if you spend time with Christ that He will give you the hope that your desert won’t last forever.
Friend, don’t throw in the towel and quit. Your answer is found in Jesus Christ. The desert is not a quitting time, but the desert is time to get alone with Christ. If you’re going to make it through the desert experiences of life, then you must realize that Christ alone is the only One Who can bring the beauty of the rose to your desert experience. Don’t look to man to find the beauty, but look to Christ. Your desert experience will end, but don’t quit before Christ brings the beauty to your desert experience.