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“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.” Isaiah 35:1 (NIV)

In early April 2021, I had the privilege to travel to Tucson, Arizona, to spend Easter with my oldest son and his family. I went for morning walks while there and went on car rides with my family to do typical tourist sightseeing. I was in awe of all the desert beauty.

I ended up with hundreds of photos on my iPhone. I was impressed by the vast variety of cacti, or cactuses. From round, bulky, short plants, to long, tall ones, achieving several feet in height, they were all deserving of my attention. Some even had colorful blooms on them. Magnificent, different, and beautiful were those plants, with lots of thorns all over them. Yes, thorns. If one were to fall against a cactus plant, the encounter would not be pleasant, and would, undoubtedly, leave some scars.

I went up a mountain with my brood to watch the breathtaking sunset, and I could not stop admiring all the rocks, plants, tree stumps and other desert vegetation. Everything was beginning to show the signs of Spring. And I could not stop praising God for creating them all for me to enjoy at that time.

To cross a desert on foot without the proper necessities to maintain one alive, such as food and water, would be a voyage that no one would volunteer to embark upon. In our lives, the difficult times or tribulations that we often go through are referred to as “deserts,” exactly because during those times we are needy of God’s attention and help for us to be able to survive the journey.

The beauty I experienced at the Arizona desert served as a reminder to me that it does not matter if we are in the desert and all is dry. There is always a lesson to be learned amidst the mountains, rocks, the sand, and the typical plants. It is the same God that cares for us in the desert as when we are elsewhere.

“Dear Lord, thank You for the many reminders You give to us that no matter where we are, like the cacti in the desert, we will stand tall.”

 For His Glory

Luska Natali
TRBC Women’s Life