For there is hope for a tree, when it is cut down, that
it will sprout again, and its shoots will not fail. Though its roots grow
old in the ground and its stump dies in the dry soil, at the scent of water it
will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant {Job
14: 7-9 NASB}.
The desert. This blistering, thirsty land is used often as a
metaphor to describe a spiritual season, one in which we find ourselves parched
and seeking for God when He seems silent; brass heavens. The Psalmist illustrates
this quite poetically:
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants
for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When
shall I come and appear before God? {Ps.
42:1-2 NASB}.
I recently saw the pages of Scripture come alive in God’s
beautiful and glorious creation. I love when the Lord through His creation, illustrates
spiritual truths. I was watching Planet Earth: Africa and watched in
amazement, as the narrator described plant life in the Sahara Desert. There is
a ball of weed, severely dried out and at all appearances, it seems dead. It is similar
to tumbleweed, but its branches are much thicker and more brittle. This weed is
tossed about in the wind, but it takes strong winds to blow it across the dry
desert sands.
This weed, though it looks dried-out and dead, when it finds
just a small puddle of water, hard to find in the Sahara, it roots itself in
the puddle. Once this weed finds a small patch of water, what once seemed dead,
comes to life and unfurls. This alone is a miracle, but it needs one more. It
waits for the rain, but the rain must come before it dries out again. The rain
pours down on its dead, dry branches, and as the rain falls, it knocks the
seeds off this dry bushel, and within hours, fresh, new, green shoots emerge and
break through the sand. This amazing plant within weeks of sprouting, flowers and develops their own seeds. The hot sun beats down and dries them out and the
cycle begins again. This plant is not a weed after all; it is a resurrection
plant. These plants, while in their dried-out stage, can blow around in the
Sahara for as long as one hundred years, yet when the wind and rain come, it
resurrects to spread their seed through the desert.
Do you have dreams that seem to have died? Do you feel dead
and dry spiritually? Jesus can resurrect everything that seems dead; all your
hopes and dreams. Your purpose and calling are not dead; at the very scent of
water, it will flourish and put forth sprigs {v.9}, like this
resurrection plant in the Sahara Desert. Rest this Sabbath weekend in the truth that
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and Life {Jn.
14:6 NASB}, He is resurrection life.
Below is a video of this miraculous plant. As you watch, let
it speak to you, let God speak to you and bring back to life those things that
seem dead. Rest and believe that they will sprout forth again at the scent of
the Living Water of Jesus.
