after the wilderness
If you’ve ever experienced prolonged disappointment or pain, you know it can feel like you’re in the “wilderness”—a barren place where you never seem to reach the much-hoped-for “Promised Land.”
far from home
On the day I graduated from college, my sister was on a trip in the same state with her high school class. She wanted to celebrate with me and—fortunately—a chaperone was willing to drive her 6.5 hours north to my school. But as they drove away from the hotel, they headed south. Obviously, neither of them had a strong inner compass. For it was several hours later—after they entered a scenic area deep in the southern region of the state—that they knew something was amiss.
runaway garden
Last summer, I tried to grow tomatoes (yet again). I bought heirloom starter vines and a wooden trough planter. I talked to farmer friends about best practices and even concocted an organic fertilizer mixture that was supposed to make my plants flourish. The growing season ended, however, and I had plucked a grand total of one tomato—a scraggly, little fellow, slightly larger than a golf ball.
wilderness experiences
God sometimes works in strange ways. Jesus is baptized, and the next thing He experiences is temptation. Led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, He’s tempted by Satan—His adversary. Such is the nature of our own wilderness experiences.
The wilderness stirred many emotions for the Jews of Jesus’ day, evoking memories of their 40-year journey out of Egypt. To…
