A Desert TransformedSample

Change is at the Heart of the Universe

What season are you experiencing at present? Are you in a time of joy and fulfilment or is it a more stressful time of loss or pain? How do you feel about change? Do you long for it or is it something you fear and avoid? 

When we fear change, we can dig our heels in and refuse to move forward. It’s easy then to become cynical and embittered, reluctant to pray or open ourselves to God’s leading. It can turn our hearts into a desert because we are always focusing on the negatives; looking backward instead of ahead, with hope and trust in God’s ability to work all things to the good in our lives.

A typical characteristic of deserts is their sameness. Mile after mile they continue: the same view of hot, barren sand; the same burning footsteps and extreme thirst. Sometimes our lives feel like this too. If we are going through a difficult season it can feel like it’s going to continue forever.

But God has written change into the heart of the universe. Even the desert is constantly changing beneath the surface. Sands shift, routes become obliterated and unrelenting sameness is transformed overnight when the rains come to bring to bloom its hidden life.

We all treasure aspects of our present lives, but we can get fearful of those things changing. 

God says to us all: “Every season is beautiful. It may be a very different beauty to the season you’ve just been in, but it will still be beautiful because I will be with you in it. I will open your eyes to new signs of my love and grace. It will be a means of you drawing closer to me and growing stronger in your faith, so don’t be afraid, but even now look for and treasure the glimpses I will give you of what is to come and the promise of my presence with you.” 

Pray with me…

Lord, thank you that every season of my life is beautiful because you are with me in it. Forgive me for fearing change and looking back all the time. Help me to trust and to see with your eyes. Amen.