A few years ago, Don and I drove from Colorado to California
through Utah and Arizona. The terrain either side of the road is extraordinary.
The dry scrubland is punctuated with exclamation points of dramatic stone
shapes – we skirted the famous Zion, Bryce and Canyonlands national parks so
were enjoying their leftover magnificence.
We stopped frequently, at every lay-by, to take pictures and
read the tourist trail descriptions of what we were seeing. At one particular
spot, we read that Butch Cassidy’s hideout with his Hole in the Wall gang was
nearby. At that same place, another information board told of the Mormons
following this ‘trail’ as the discrimination against them intensified in the
east.
We wondered how their wagons could have possibly traversed
the landscape we were seeing. It was pockmarked with depressions, littered with
stones and hillocks and scrub bushes and cacti. Every foot forward must have
been deliberate and required some preparation.
There must have been scouts and trail blazers looking ahead
and trying to predict the easiest route for the clumsy wagons and weakened
pioneers to take. Sometimes that may have been the shortest route but no doubt
there were times when the easiest route involved going in a round-about way. Not
every mountain and river would have been passable, even with care.
Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God, Isaiah wrote thousands of years ago.
I sense that we have come through a wilderness these last
months – me trailblazing as much as possible and then moving forward. I have
often felt weak and daunted by the mountains before me. But with God’s help, we
have arrived at an oasis now.
I say an oasis because we are not out of the desert yet. God
has been speaking to me about the eagle as well as the wilderness. Isaiah 40
ends on the wonderful verses that those who hope in the Lord will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.
I hope in the Lord and therefore my strength will be
renewed. As I soar like an eagle, the obstructions of mountains and cacti and
ditches and scrub bushes blend: none looks insurmountable; all look fairly
innocuous even. From a height, I can discern a way forward better than I can
when obstructions loom above me.
Jesus invites us to sit with him and enjoy times of
refreshment. I anticipate a thirst-quenching draught of his Holy Spirit. I am
excited to linger with him and be renewed. Even in the on-going busyness of
life, such refreshment and renewal can come. I am so grateful, as I sink into
his presence.
