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A Sun Shelter
The Israelites of Moses' day trudged, sandal-shod, through the
desert of Sinai. The need to find shelter from the blistering heat
meant survival. Finding shelter meant so much more than just finding
a pleasant place to rest for a night. Shelter meant life.
Desert-baked dehydration kills. Thus shelter and water in a weary
land meant, and still means, life.
I learned that first-hand at Qumran in 1997. The Judean desert is
brutal. I felt the sun-scorched landscape mercilessly radiate back
the sun's heat. While I listened to the guide explain the scene
before me, I mopped my brow with a soggy paper tissue, and so did
the woman standing next to me. The air sizzled and danced in
130-degree-F temperatures. A mirage, faking water on sand, made us
even more thirsty. Bottled water provided only temporary relief. We
drank gallons of it. We shuffled beneath a water-soaked palm branch
canopy seeking refuge from the blazing heat, but our collective body
heat drove us back to the edges in an effort to catch a derelict
breeze. We deluded ourselves into thinking that a scant breeze blew
from the Dead Sea. We found little reprieve.
Thankfully, we were soon ushered back into our air-conditioned bus.
As I settled in my seat, I wondered how the Israelites endured forty
years of wilderness wandering. That day, I developed a new
appreciation for the struggle of those Israelites. Likewise, deep
within my soul, I knew that life lived through Jesus Christ, which
is living within the shelter of God's shadow, provides more relief
for our daily struggles than any shade tree on a sizzling hot day.
Prayer: Lord God, through Christ Jesus, we find in You our shelter
from our daily struggles. May those who have yet to come to know
You, find You, through Your Son and our Saviour. Amen.
Cassandra Wessel
casswessel@PROTECTED
Tionesta, Pennsylvania, USA
Thanks to http://daily.presbycan.ca |
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