Changing Deserts to Gardens

Lent Day 16, Saturday, March 22

For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places 
and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord;
 joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. “Give attention to me, my people,
 and give ear to me, my nation;
 for a law will go out from me,
 and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. Isaiah 51:3-4

Isaiah wrote this as Israel suffered injustice under the Assyrians. Pause and listen to the promise of God in the midst of your exile, wasteland, wilderness, desert. God sees, God intervenes, God comforts, God transforms your circumstances. Imagine what it would be like to have your desert become the garden of the Lord.

Ponder: Consider what your “waste places” look like, where your wilderness is. Imagine what it would be like to have your desert become the garden of the Lord. Will you pay attention and look for it? How can that comfort you?

Praise: God will set His justice for a light to the people through Jesus Christ.

Photographer: Alan Matthews

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