Wilderness

Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell - Nehemiah 9:21

When you hear the word wilderness what comes?  A few words come to my mind when I think of wilderness:  isolation, desolation, wild animals, hardships.  These are but a few words that come to my mind and I am sure that there are many more that can describe wilderness.  The wilderness is a recurring theme in both the Old and New Testaments in which it is portrayed as a desolate place where little survives, especially people.  Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and spent forty years roaming the wilderness as they made their way to the Promised Land.  There was no water, no food, and the Israelites complained about their hard life.  At one point in their travels they wondered if life was better in bondage than in wandering the wilderness.  All the while, during these difficult times, God was with them and provided all they needed to survive in the harsh wilderness.  In tomorrow's gospel reading from Luke we find Jesus intentionally heading into the wilderness for forty days to face temptation at the hands of devil.  In these forty days Jesus was sustained by his divinity, the source of which comes from God.  For the biblical authors the wilderness represented a place on the fringes of God's creation and where little survived.  A harsh and unforgiving land.  But the wilderness is not always a place of desolation or despair. 

I have been to the wilderness, not only in the Holy Land but right here in our own country.  Through my time in the Boy Scouts I grew to love the natural beauty of the wilderness.  Whether its the dense primeval forests of central Maine, the desolate high desert of eastern Oregon, or the Negev there is a beauty that words cannot describe.  As I traveled the empty roads to Cove, Oregon I found myself stopping on the roadside to not only snap a few pictures but also take in the natural beauty of the land.  There was a stillness, a quietness, that filled the space.  One can not help but feel God's presence even when there was not a single person around for miles.  There is something to be said for spending time in the wilderness.  I can understand the draw the wilderness had for the desert fathers and mothers who sought to rid themselves of the trappings of society and embrace the wilderness as a way to deepen their relationship with God.  I am not about to run off to the desert and live the monastic life, however the wilderness does command a powerful energy that cannot be denied.

The wilderness can be an amazing place full of beauty and danger but the wilderness goes beyond just a physical place.  Sometimes it feels like we are walking through a spiritual wilderness.  As I have noted before my walk with Christ has taken me to some amazing places and also through some difficult moments.  It is in those difficult moments when I felt distant from God and walking through that spiritual wilderness.  I felt lost, without direction, and desperately looking for sustenance to see me through the wilderness.  What I had to remember in those difficult times was that I am not alone.  Much like the Israelites that the prophet Nehemiah writes about in the verse above, God was with me, guiding me, sustaining me, and even sometimes carrying me.  When we are immersed in those times it is hard to see beyond it, but faith in God and trusting in his love will help us through the wilderness and into a deeper, fuller relationship with God.