streams in the desert

You all remember my post about the desert?

And how resistant I was to this new adventure.

I even went so far as to lobby against it biblically.

Saying to my husband, "You know in the bible the

desert isn't typically regarded as a good thing."

Visually I've thought of the desert as dry, brown, hot.

And in the bible so often it symbolizes being stuck.

That in between place.  Outside of God's will.

Not yet reached the promised land.

But I know.  Shame on me.

Please forgive me, those of you who live in desert places.

The Lord is always working on me.  Always teaching. Always refining.

The desert is God's country too.

There is beauty in the light, in the red sand,

the yellow blossoms, the wild life, and vast open space.

And God does miraculous things in the desert.

The pillar of cloud and fire.  Victory over the Egyptian army.

Bread from heaven.

"I will rain down bread 

from heaven for you."  

Exodus 16:4

Life giving water from the rock.

"I will stand there before you 

by the rock at Horeb.  

Strike the rock,

and water will come out of it 

for the people to drink."  

Exodus 17:6

He provides their daily needs in the desert.

"For forty years you sustained 

them in the wilderness;

they lacked nothing..."  

Nehemiah 9:21

They lacked NOTHING.

I just learned that there is a natural spring over the hill from

the desert house.  A spring that will bring water to our well

and attracts deer to the area.

And that is what reminded me of the scripture in Isaiah inside the

art piece of Arizona above.

"Behold I am doing a new thing; 

now it springs forth,

do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and streams in the desert."

Isaiah 43:19

This promise of hope.  The new thing that springs forth,

making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

It's so beautiful isn't it? I wrote about how much this meant

to me in a New Year's post from 2011.

And the devotional streams in the desert has long been one of

my favorite.  I recommend it often as a way of helping to

change the way you see your struggles, your desert places.

And yet, I still need reminding myself.

The Lord recently nudged me towards that sense of hope

He creates in the desert.  A way in the wilderness.

This little desert house.

Could it be a literal manna?

Live giving bread sent from heaven.

The absolute quiet.

The open space.

The removal of our daily distractions.

A space to dig deeper into the well of living water.

To seek His way in the wilderness.

A reminder to trust Him for

E V E R Y - T H I N G

just as the Israelites had to do.

A place to be still.

To retreat.

To see the desert places as

the blessings they are.

Where God is ever present.

Always providing.

Always filling.

Always healing.

Always knowing.

Always seeing.

When the Lord appeared to Hagar in the desert,

"she called the name of the LORD 

who spoke to her,

"You are the God of seeing," 

for she said, "Truly here I 

have seen him who looks after me."

Genesis 16:13

Him who looks after me.

Him who looks after you.

Because He sees you.

Those simple words carry so much comfort don't they?

And she named the well in the desert

"The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me."

This desert place.

I want it to be one where we grow closer to the one who sees.

"Draw near to God 

and he will draw near to you."

James 4:8

Because it is the very sustenance we need.

"Times of refreshing come

from the presence of the Lord."

Acts 3:19

Refreshment in the desert

until the day when we reach Zion,
our Promised Land.

"The desert and the parched land

will be glad;

the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;

it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy."

Isaiah 35:1

beauty in the desert

I know most of you don't know me well.

And I apologize to those of you who live in the desert.

But I have always declared pretty adamantly that I do not like the desert.

I prefer the ocean or mountains.

I am not a desert girl.

And my husband knows that.

So when he sat me down a few weeks ago and said,

"I want to propose something" coupled with, "I just

wish you liked the desert more."

I instantly thought uh.."Where are you going with this?"

You see my husband is a business man

and he is always looking at things from a business,

practical perspective. 

He also grew up on a farm.

He likes the open range.

And he spends his free time looking things up.

Things about the economy, properties,

investments, things for the future.

He's a forward thinking kind of guy.

And whenever he travels for work he typically

comes home saying he'd love to live there, or buy there.

I used to think we were moving, all the time.

I'd get all emotionally worked up about this place that

it looked like we'd be soon calling home.

But then I realized most of the time he's just kind of thinking out loud.

Only this time, his thoughts turned into reality rather quickly.

But don't worry my local friends, we're not moving.

It's just a getaway kind of thing.

And this possibility led us on an adventure

 to Arizona and the Grand Canyon this past

Memorial Day Weekend.

Again I must say I went into this sort of apprehensively.

Still saying I'm not a desert girl.

But I said I'd keep an open mind.

And I told him, I'd be taking pictures along the way.

A way of helping myself find beauty in the desert.

He asked me to trust him, to trust that this idea he had,

this location was so peaceful and such a good opportunity

that he felt led to move forward on it.

And so to we set off on our very impromptu

Arizona road trip...

My six year old eternal optimist gets out

for our pit stop and says, "I love how hot and

windy it is at the same time."

We traveled along the old route 66.

I've never, ever done this.

And though I told my husband I had

radiator springs visions dancing in my head.

It was kind of fun.

Kind of an adventure.

And super fun stopping in the old historic towns.

The thrift stores.  Let's just say I can't

wait to go back.  Because they don't

charge an arm and a leg like they do here in LA.

And slowly but surely, I was seeing the beauty.

This was our last stop before the grand canyon.  There's many a story here that I will

save for another day. But my kids posed like this and asked for a picture.  I just

had to give it that old saloon look.

In the restaurant she was horrified this cowboy wouldn't stop singing to her.

He truly wasn't getting a clue.  And then she got mad at me

for documenting it, but I just had to. 

And then when we hit the dirt roads, on the way

to the property there were free roaming cows everywhere.

And I was like a giddy city girl getting out to take pictures.

I know the locals must have thought I was crazy.

And finally, we arrived

to the little house on the desert prairie.

I'm standing on the porch taking this picture of

my family.  That's how remote it is.

Nestled on forty acres and surrounded by federally

protected land that will never be developed.

I could understand the peaceful feeling my

husband was talking about.

And how this was something too good to pass up.

And so, I am going to learn to savor the peace

and open space, the golden light, the rustic,

and the wild of the desert.

Because this little 600 square foot prairie house 

is our new little project.

It will snow in the winter and it's about an hour drive

from all kinds of different places like lakes

and the mountains.  

It all happened really so fast.

But it had been a long standing dream

of my husband's to do something like this.

The house officially closed escrow yesterday.

And I'm officially deeming it the desert prairie house.

If you follow me on pinterest, you'll understand

why that folder tentatively called 'future?' 

has been very active lately.

Because there are lots of DIY ideas floating

around and projects I can't wait to

get up there and dig into to transform

this place into a peaceful retreat.

My husband has plans for guy trips with ATV's

and me, well girl trips with scrapbooking or

pinterest parties.  A girl can dream right.

Only one hang up, the closest Trader Joe's

is 90 minutes away.  OH the shame.

I will be bringing up a cooler of my

own food.

But other than that, I'm getting

excited, and learning to embrace

the beauty of the desert.