Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friends,

I love the monsoon season and the lessons it holds for us in the desert! Yesterday on an evening walk I was amazed again by the very little bit of water that desert-adapted plants need to flower or bear their fruits. In my part of town we’ve had one good rain and a few sprinkles, and all of the sudden we have desert willows looking very happy, fresh wildflowers, and a bedraggled fig tree on our porch has made a fig!

Needing just a little water, being adapted to long stretches in the desert, feels like an apt metaphor for some periods of the spiritual life. We as Christians go through seasons and cycles in our faith lives. I’ve heard several people describe themselves as a within a kind of wilderness or spiritual desert right now, the last few years have contained so much pain and with new sight in the midst of this time has left many of us feeling unmoored.

When we talk about a spiritual desert it can feel as dangerous and parched as a physical one, I don’t mean to say that a wilderness road is pleasant. But I do think over time and with good companions we might gain some skills for the desert. We remember to bring a flashlight, and a little extra water, and we remember where we found oases before. Christians can become desert-adapted too.

I have been reading a book about dendrochronology by a professor at the University and she has all kinds of parables about how natural systems, mainly trees, work. Some trees make very small tree rings when they have a too-cold winter or a too-warm summer. Sometimes the compensation for the weather makes the tree stronger and sometimes it makes the tree weaker. I think we too possess similar patterns, we might build up some hard edges around challenging periods of time, we might reach a place of tenderness and compassion for ourselves and others when we have received that ourselves. Over the years we might see stretches of growth and stretches of practicing the faith in different ways. Humans don’t have tree rings but the spiritual seasons and physical seasons of our lives do leave their mark.

Jesus goes to the desert seeking God’s will, seeking discernment and replenishment. When we find ourselves there, may we have just enough water to bear the fruits we’re given to bear, and to know that we are not alone.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor

PS - If you don’t see the image of the desert willow, click “see original post.”