Hurricane Michael: Listen for hope in the passage Isaiah 35:1-2
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be happy for them and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
It will burst into bloom, and rejoice greatly with singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.
Hurricane Michael: Blooms After the Storm
I’ll confess that it was hard to appreciate that passage when I read it last week. I’ve looked around at this community and I notice trees blocking our way, displaced families who are refugees in their own home town, destroyed homes that are really destroyed memories, and wounded souls in need of God’s gentle hands.
Abandonment
What’s worse is that many of us feel abandoned by our own state and federal governments because of Hurricane Michael. The news media doesn’t report on the devastation to this community because it doesn’t produce the two things media demands: shame and anger.
The hurricane of a century begs a question, where was God? I stood on my grandparent’s porch and I looked at the trees. For ten mins I stared at the devastation because I didn’t want to forget the feelings it evoked.
I looked at the front yard of my home here, there’s a 100 year oak tree dead in the yard. I built that house beside it because it was so beautiful. The field behind my house, it is blanketed with snapped and broken trees. They offer no shade, they only lie on the ground awaiting chainsaws.
I sat on the porch steps and looked at the trees that are left. They are mangled, torn, even mutilated by a storm with no appreciation for their age or the shade they provided.
Where was God?
I wondered “where is God?” Then, as if the Spirit spoke to me and said “look up,” Where was God? God was in the tops of the trees! The survivors were blooming! I looked around and leaves werebursting out of the limbs.
The storm took their leaves and their limbs, but the miracle of life did not abandon them. Mother nature gave them a nudge and leaves formed. It was almost like new life began to burst from their wounds. They will persevere: Through wind, rain, and brokenness, they still stand telling a story of survival.
The devastation hurts, but life invites us to keep growing, and keep budding! The blooms offer a chance to see God at work, even in devastation, and even in darkness.
The gift of Honesty
Our struggle in this community is why the passage from the Isaiah scroll is so moving. It flows into the heart… and in the desert experiences give life. Isaiah says, The desert will be happy and bloom like a rose.
Notice the setting: in the desert. The prophet does not speak this message to a people at ease under the palm trees of Jordan. This promise is not for the ones who have spiritually arrived. The proclamation is not for the Pharisees who know all the rules and have all the right answers.
These are words for the wilderness. These words are for the one willing to admit that trees are broken and the sun’s heat drains the soul. When we’re in the desert, we’re in the desert.
We can rebuke it, deny it, repress it, disown it, restrain it and even deceive ourselves… but the real challenge is can we admit it.It’s easy to trust God to bring us throughthe desert. But this passage is a call is to embrace the desert.
A good traveler is not intent on arriving, they know it’s the journey that matters the most.
God wants honesty, not a denial of reality that masquerades as faith. Can we wait for the Lord in the desert… can we realize that our circumstances demand deeper roots than we have at present?
In 2010 the Helmand province of Afghanistan was considered the most dangerous place in the world. Fighting was fierce and the reality of death confronted all of us serving there on a daily basis.
If that wasn’t enough, opium fields blanketed the landscape. The red and white flowers of opium poppies were a reminder that drug lords would stop at nothing to defend their cash crops. 80% of the world’s heroin came from the Helmand province of Afghanistan. Women and children always suffer when drugs are the source of income.
The desert also gave the obnoxious gift of… sandstorms. They rise from nowhere and sweep across the landscape in a blinding cloud of dirt. The sand itself isn’t dangerous but it takes your vision.
When you can’t seewhere you’re going you lose direction. When you’re blinded by the desert you fall prey to accidents. We do not wantthem to happen, but the desert creates the conditions for them.
You can’t seeyour fellow soldiers, so you watch yourself. The blinding sands don’t offer the luxury of minding your brother’s business, — you’re too busy trying to survive.
Sure, I could deny that I was in a desert. I could even deny that the deployment was going to last a year. Yet I was still in the desert for a year. Accept where you’re at because that is where you are in God.
Remember, the desert is where Isaiah sets the scene for roses in bloom.
Growth in the Desert
The desert might have its challenges but it also has its opportunities. God’s greatest invitation for growth often occurs in the wilderness. It’s not a place of punishment, it’s a time of preparation.
Moses goes into the desert for 40 years to meet God. Israel goes to a desert where God makes a covenant with them. David hides in the wilderness and prepares to become king. The Spirit drives Jesus into the desert to begin his ministry.
The desert is the place of growth. God doesn’t move the desert – or the storm. The sand is still irritating. It still works its way into our sandals and blisters our feet. It still makes the journey miserable.
Hurricane Michael: Difficulties are opportunities.
But the dust reminds us that we grow from the sand. God reaches down and molds Adam from the dust of the ground. The coarse dirt helps us grow.
The gritty and the difficult moments are the hands of God molding us into the people of God. I’ll be bold and say to trust the desert. Trust where you are because God is forming something new in you.
Adam is not formed from soft clouds or tranquil mountain streams. Adam, new life, comes from dirt.The abrasive moments are just as sacred as the victories.
“God deliver me” isn’t always the right prayer. Sometimes we need to pray, “God, grow me.”
The desert purges us from the safety of doctrines and denominations. It calls us beyond the comfort of theological convictions and philosophical conclusions. The wilderness forces us to relinquish control of God by our ideas of what is right.
Perhaps the desert summons us to sell all our certainty and buy spiritual wonder. When we accept the desert we become teachable. Roses bloom when we’re willing to find God in the wilderness.
A Hurricane Michael and Roses
But there is still more to the story. If we choose growth, if we choose surrender, God will give us peace through the process. The prophet says, “The desert will rejoice and bloom as a rose.”
It does not say God’s people will bloom… it says the desertwill bloom. Isaiah goes on to say, “the desert will burst into bloom with happiness, and all will see God’s glory.”
Happiness is the rose in the desert.
We don’t seek it, the desert gives it to us. The prophet later said, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up. I am making a way in the desert and I give you streams in the wilderness.
It seems to say that God takes the fears and the tears and uses them to water a garden. After the sands form us, new life springs into motion. The desert is the place where our mistakes and mishaps can birth our happiness and our.
Like a divine botanist, God knows the right conditions for growth. God knows the healing power of a rose in the desert.
Desert roads often lead to the most beautiful destinations. I’m learning to enjoy the sound of my feet walking through the desert… because I know God is with me.
Life in the Desert
I lived in the desert of southern California. Each spring the rains would water the arid sands. Each year I would go to bed with rain and wake to flowers blooming. A miracle happened in the night, IN THE DARKNESS. The rain called the seeds toward the light. Yellow and purple flowers covered the landscape like fog.
It was still a desert. The desert was still sandy. It still had wind. But, the desert also rejoiced and bloomed with happiness. It was an oasis of flowers. An oasis of joy.
Roses and Oak Trees
That old oak trees remins me of a rose in the desert. The winds took limbs and branches, yet the oak tree still buds. It buds in the face of adversity. It says, “Life is not finished with me yet.” Or maybe it says, “I’m not finished with life yet.”
The tree doesn’t care if limbs are missing. The Oak still buds when part of itself is dead. The tree doesn’t mind other people’s business, it just blooms before God. That old oak tree isn’t mad at God for the storm, it buds in spiteof the storm. It is not crippled with fear, it buds in the center of difficulty. The tree isn’t worried about tomorrow, it just buds today and trusts God.
There is hope… there is always hope.
One day, in retrospect, the times of struggle will strike us as the most beautiful moments of our lives. In those times we will see roses in the desert of Hurricane Michael.
Amen.
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