Have you ever experienced a season of dryness? This time of year sometimes feels that way for me. The weather stuck between the darkness of winter and the spring re-birth. We await the celebration of Easter as we finish putting away the last of Christmas. I feel lost in a desert of anticipation, awaiting the spring rains to renew my soul. My mind wanders to a time flying high above the Sahara and the lesson I discovered from the desert.
The Desert
I learned the Sahara Desert continues to be one of the most inhospitable places on our planet. The temperatures in this desolate area can range from 32 degrees at night up to 120 degrees during the day. This desert in Africa is the hottest and driest place on record. The massive desert covers over 1.7 million square miles of the African Continent. Flying from Kenya to London offered me an opportunity to witness this enormous expanse of desert. I spent an hour staring at the shifting sands below me. Awe-inspiring.
Surviving the Season of Dryness
Recently, I also learned of a plant that survives in this harsh environment. The plant is called the Resurrection Plant. This plant can go years without water as it blows across the vast emptiness of the region. Some experts believe it can survive as long as a hundred years in a dormant state. But once it finds even the tiniest amount of water, the plant comes back to life and begins to bloom again. Sometimes, it only lasts a few days before it dries up once again. The plant waits for the next rains to restore it to life.
But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
John 4:14 (NLT)
The story of the Resurrection plant reminds me of our Christian faith and my season of dryness. Like the plant blowing around the desert, we appear dead without the living water of Christ to bring us to life. Once we accept Christ, His living waters flow through us and sustain us. We bloom in our harsh surroundings. Once we die to this life, the living water of Christ will also give us eternal life in heaven. Without Christ, we remain dormant and dry.
Overcoming the Season of Dryness
The Resurrection plant survives and thrives in a hostile environment. Our time on this planet will also present us with many harsh situations, like the heat of anger, or the cold shoulder of disappointment. But the love of Christ will enable us to survive our hostile world as well as our periods of dryness. Christ will help us bloom again.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;
John 11:25 (NIV)
Whenever you feel yourself blowing around in the winds of this life, remember the desert Resurrection plant. If God can resurrect a plant from the Sahara desert even after it has been dead for years, He can revive you from your problems too. Just plug into the living waters and refresh your soul.
Blessings,
Yvonne M Morgan, #Blogger, #Speaker, #Writer
Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
100% of the proceeds from sales of my book, Turning Mountains Into Molehills, go to help the orphans at Orphan Relief Effort, Inc
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God can always bring us out of the desert. We need to rely on Him for guidance. Great message.
Thanks Melissa and God bless
Great reminder that God can pull us out of wherever we are at!
He is so good to us. Thanks Julie and God bless
Yes, He is, indeed, the life-giver!
Thanks and God bless
Awesome analogy! We can all be like this Resurrection Plant.
Yes we can. Thanks and God bless.
What an inspiring lesson from God’s creation! And, imagine this… just today my husband and I took a trip to a flower conservatory and in the gift shop I discovered little packets that contained, you guessed it, the Resurrection plant! Look at how the Holy Spirit weaves together the details of our lives! God is awesome! I even considered buying one of the little plants just to see what it looked like. More important than the plant itself, is that fact that you put this simple but profound lesson in my mind and spirit, the very day I saw a Resurrection Plant for the first time in my life. Thank you for sharing this, Yvonne! Yes, God still resurrects things and people!
How amazing Melissa. I will have to look for them too. God shows us so much through nature. What a mighty Savior. Thanks so much for sharing. God bless.
How remarkable that there is a plant called the Resurrection Plant! And that it can come back to life, after long dry spells, if it has access to only a little water. What an inspirational image. We too can be brought back to life when we are given living water!
Yes we can with a little dose of the Living Water of Christ. Thanks and God bless
Wow! This is so encouraging, Yvonne, and timely, too! Thank you for taking an example from your extensive travels and using it today to lift all of us out of the desert, allowing the refreshment of the Lord to bring us back to life. This touched my heart today: “Like the plant blowing around the desert, we appear dead without the living water of Christ to bring us to life. Once we accept Christ, His living waters flow through us and sustain us. We bloom in our harsh surroundings.”
Yes we do bloom in our harsh surroundings. Thanks and God bless
Someone gave me a cactus she had neglected for years. It grew to take up a span of about five feet. Resurrection in the desert. Thanks and God bless!
How wonderful. Thanks and God bless
Wow, Yvonne. I didn’t know all these facts about the Sahara Desert or there was such a thing as the Resurrection Plant. Amazing. Your analogy to how it survives in hostile and dry conditions until that next bit of water from rain, is such great imagery to the spiritual journey and living water to help us survive our hostile and dry conditions as believers.
Thanks Karen and God bless