Blooms in the Desert

Death Valley is the hottest place on Earth. It's an unforgiving environment. But every now and then, a rain comes and brings the desert to life.

You may have seen the spectacular display here in the news recently. It was interesting to read this description on from the National Park Service: 

Death Valley is famous for its spectacular, spring wildflower displays, but those are the exception, not the rule. Only under perfect conditions does the desert fill with a sea of gold, purple, pink or white flowers. Although there are years where blossoms are few, they are never totally absent.

Most of the showy desert wildflowers are annuals, also referred to as ephemerals because they are short-lived. Oddly enough, this limited lifespan ensures survival here. Rather than struggle to stay alive during the desert’s most extreme conditions, annual wildflowers lie dormant as seeds. When enough rain finally does fall, the seeds quickly sprout, grow, bloom and go back to seed again before the dryness and heat returns. By blooming enmasse during good years, wildflowers can attract large numbers of pollinators such as butterflies, moths, bees and hummingbirds that might not otherwise visit Death Valley.

A good wildflower year depends on at least three things:

• Well-spaced rainfall throughout the winter and spring
• Sufficient warmth from the sun
• Lack of drying winds

Our lives and our spirits can sometimes feel like Death Valley--inhospitable, barren, dry, routine. But sometimes a rain comes, the sun comes, and the winds die down, all at the right time, and what blooms is absolutely spectacular. What was thought to be dead or dormant is radiant in it's natural glory for a short while.

When Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountaintop after six days below, he made his glory known. It is called the Transfiguration. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

Peter can be forgiven for wanting to set up tents on the mountaintop so they would never have to come down. As my son would say, "Daddy, can we stay with you forever?"  But like the wildflowers in Death Valley, such rare occasions when we are permitted to see God for who He really is are not a perpetual state. Really, who outside of Heaven could withstand it for more than a few moments?

We sometimes think that these moments are unusual, an outlier, which is true in a sense given our fallen nature. "Now we see a blurred image in a mirror. Then we will see very clearly." (1 Cor 13:12). But really, we are permitted in these moments of transfiguration a glimpse behind the curtain of worldly reality, given a taste of the transcendent. We live in an un-reality which we confuse with reality when in fact what is behind the curtain is what is real! It is a grace that comes unexpectedly and as a pure gift, to wet our appetites for what is eternal when we forget that we are merely pilgrims making our way through the world. As Jesus said, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly!"