I’m sure that when you stepped out of your house today the last thing you were thinking about was the desert! I know that no matter how warmly I dress in layers and all, that first rush of cold air still hits the part of your face that’s not covered and sends a chill throughout the body. It might make you long for the heat of the desert!
When I began reflecting on today’s Gospel reading I couldn’t help make this contrast. For certainly whenever the temperatures are extreme, they grab our attention and make us focus on them.
And I suspect that was also true for Jesus as He immersed himself in that desert experience for forty days and nights. The desert as you know can be blistering hot during the day and frigid at night! And it seems that Jesus had little to protect him from the elements. In that isolated state, He begins to wrestle with his hunger, with his apparent powerlessness, and his destiny.
We know from the scriptures that Jesus often went off to be alone where He could communicate with His Father and be renewed and refreshed in His mission as our Messiah.
Lent of course is our own personal desert experience. We may scurry out of the cold outside into the warmth, but it is the barrenness in our hearts where God comes to us and offer us direction and renewal in our lives. All those times and places that we feel empty, like the desert, those are the places where God comes to us and offers us new life.
No one likes to sit in the discomfort of the desert as I am sure Jesus didn’t either. But it was those forty days that were transformative for Him and sent Him forth into His ministry to accomplish the greatness of redemption.
During these weeks we too can be transformed. We too can find refreshment and renewal. We too can be re-energized into the people God intends us to be. We too can meet the Father and know that He is our God and we are His people, no matter what the weather.