Each one will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
Isaiah 32:2
Wind hits the face. Rain soaks the trees. Thunder shakes the building. The desert is cracked with dry ground. The grass is withered from the hot beating sun. When we look at our lives and the world around us, hopelessness runs rampant. It often feels like storm after storm. There must be another way. This is not the way it was supposed to be.
The Israelites knew this pain well. They clung to this verse, and others, as a future hope of the promise of a shelter, a refuge, streams of water. Dead things would come back to full and abundant life. Jesus says that he has come that we may have life to the full. He is our stream in the desert.
By the power of the cross and resurrection, we are entering into new life today. There will be a day with no need for shelter or streams or refuge, but until then we hold true to the promise that no matter how much death creeps in, how many storms we weather, we have full and abundant life, we have a shelter.
Knowing that Jesus is our shelter, our refuge, our streams of water in the desert, we, as His body, come together to be streams of water in this desert world. Where is God calling you to irrigate deserts? What death around you does God want to bring to life through you?
Brayden Delanoy ’17