Placed in a Barren Land — Week 4
By Sharon McCray, Pastor’s Wife at Parkway Community Church, Phoenix, Arizona

“Springs of waters will burst out in the wilderness, and streams flow in the desert.  Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain”
(Isaiah 35:6, 7, MSG).

Upon arriving in the “Valley of the Sun,” I began hearing greetings like “Welcome to Phoenix, Arizona, and the Wild, Wild West!”  I felt as though I had been swept into a foreign country.  All I could focus on for several weeks were the dirt, rock and cactus around me.  Moving to Arizona in the summer is an experience in itself.  Our furniture arrived the week of the fourth of July, and there was an all-time high of 123 degrees.  We wanted to enjoy the celebration of our nation’s birthday at the state capitol with our children and grandchildren, who had also arrived from Southern California.  We soon learned downtown Phoenix is not the outdoor place to be among the concrete buildings in the sweltering heat.  On the way home, our car air conditioning went out and when we arrived at our new house, the air conditioning had gone out there as well.

We were quickly educated to the desert life with helpful hints from our church family to drive the car with two fingers and open the car door with a piece of your clothing, so as to not get third-degree burns.  We heard stories that when you live in the desert, you don’t even have to boil eggs here, the hens would lay them for you pre-boiled.

I began to learn new words that had not been used in my daily vocabulary such as dry gulch pass, saguaro cactus, and haboob.  Haboob is derived from the Arabic word “habb” meaning wind created by a thunderstorm cell.  It drags dust and debris with it, causing a wall of dust that makes driving very dangerous.  “The Monsoon,” another addition to my vocabulary, included wind, thunder, lightning, a flash flood or a 5-inch rain, in which rain drops were about 5 inches apart.  Living with all kinds of creatures including rattlesnakes, scorpions, coyotes, and roadrunners was a bit disconcerting.  I had moved to a place where people raked the rocks in their yard, made jelly out of prickly-pear cactus, and ordered specialty restaurant items like fried rattlesnake, coiled up as if to strike.  It was at this point I began to understand God definitely had a sense of humor.

When we are taken out of familiar surroundings and separated from family and old friends, our emotions are definitely stretched to the limit.  Coping with new situations and feeling overwhelmed should always lead us to a depth of God’s faithfulness.  He is always the constant companion to direct our steps, give wisdom, or comfort.  Whether it is a new place, a new job, the death of a loved one or friend, financial difficulties, challenges with a marriage or children, or health issues that cause us to fear, our heavenly Father wants to be our source of strength and guidance.

Adjusting to my new life was indeed a process, and over time God did show me why there were so many people living in this valley.  I eventually learned that the desert is, at least for a few months of the year, paradise.  Autumn arrived with cool temperatures, and I experienced the benefit of the dust in the atmosphere when I beheld the most fabulous sunset.  The dust particles lit the sunset on fire with spectacular colors of orange, violet, red and brown that I could never have seen in another location.  It was a real adventure as I left in my automobile one morning and a roadrunner went zipping down the same road.  I saw the beauty of a mother quail and her new offspring come marching out of the big cactus in the front yard.  It was soon evident that all things in life have a purpose to create a magnificent world for us to dwell—even the barren places.  We not only have a future glory to behold, but God also dwells in the desert.

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