Desert Times

January is a month of quiet stillness, the stillness of snow falling, the stillness of early darkness. It is time when the earth sleeps waiting for the renewal in life coming in future months.  January is a desert time, a time when the darkness can overwhelm us with emptiness, and loneliness.  For some the month of January can last forever, or seem like it anyway.  But spring is coming, hope lies just below the surface of cold snow and hard ground just as water lies beneath the surface of the desert waiting until it is able to break through into the light.

Today I invite you to join me in the practice of Visio Divina with the above desert picture.  As you focus on the desert scene ask yourself the following questions:

1. When have you felt the silence of the desert in your life?
2. In what ways did the desert nurture your renewal into a new spring?
3. And, what is calling your forth from the desert?

May your deserts, whether cold or hot, draw you deeper into the arms of the Holy Spirit.

Ruth Jewell, © January 21, 2014