Desert Wanderings

February 22, 2021

First Monday in Lent

Columbus, Ohio

Yesterday we heard, in the assigned lectionary reading, about desert wandering and angelic attendants. I know something of them, those holy messengers and caregivers, as I have been the humble recipient of their care in my own wilderness seasons. The people of God take on this role for one another. It is how God tends to us, through one another.

Ruth Burgess offers her own reflections on wilderness and those who meet us there in her poem:

Desert

The desert waits,

ready for those who come,

who come obedient to the Spirit's leading;

or who are driven,

because they will not come any other way.

The desert always waits,

ready to let us know who we are -

the place of self-discovery.

And whilst we fear, and rightly,

the loneliness and emptiness and harshness,

we forget the angels,

whom we cannot see for our blindness,

but who come when God decides

that we need their help;

when we are ready

for what they can give us.