Flower in the Desert
Observant eyes will notice that I have recently changed my website domain. I've gone from being melissa.montenegro.wixsite.com/website to being www.flowerinthedesert.com You may be wondering, "Why the change?" Or you may also be wondering "Why does it matter?" or "Who cares?"
For my curious readers, I offer an explanation here. I live in Washington...no, I don't live by the White House. I live in the other Washington...the one on the west coast. No, I don't see the Space Needle on my way to work, and it doesn't rain all the time. I live on the Eastern side of Washington. Nope, not Spokane. I live in southeastern Washington...in the desert.
We get less than 10 inches of rain a year, and we have hot summers with several days hitting the 100* F mark with cool desert nights. We don't have the lush forests and evergreens that the west side does. Instead, we're treated to sagebrush and dust storms. When I first moved here, I spent a significant amount of time thinking about how to get out of here. But now I can't imagine of living anywhere else.
Sometimes people ask me what's so special about eastern Washington. Some of them get that this is probably the wine industry's best kept secret, or that even though the weather is dry, we have the mighty Columbia River running through our town. People may complain that there's not much fun stuff to do here or that it's not a very exciting place to live. I get it because I used to think that, too. But I have also noticed something: There are unexpected signs of life in the desert.
About a month ago, I was laying around, feeling kind of down. The weariness that comes with adulthood was drowning me, and I was feeling frustrated and alone. I felt like the work I was doing was becoming hopeless and that my efforts were futile because of the formidable opposition. I spoke to some good friends who brought me up out of that darkness and reminded me of who I am.
It's so easy to get discouraged by what's going on in the world. Our headlines are splashed with allegations and accusations of abuse, lives ruined and childhoods lost. We live in a culture of death. In those darkest moments I wondered, "where is God in all of this?" I had to be reminded that even when it seems like evil is winning, God is actually doing a lot of invisible work and He will not be defeated. Actually, He has already won. He has the ability to make life appear in the most unexpected of places.
Ergo, the Flower in the Desert. Two years ago when I went to World Youth Day in Krakow, I heard very clearly the voice of God telling me, "Make something beautiful for me, Melissa." Is there anything more beautiful than living life for Him...even in the desert? The image of a flower in the middle of a desert came to me in prayer, and I thought it was the most unusual of things. How could it be that this flower was blooming where there was no water and the probability of being scorched under the hot sun was high? I remembered that God can do anything, even bring life out of the arid desert. In fact, I think that He does it more often than not. Great saints have come not out of the metropolises or corporations but tiny desert towns in the middle of nowhere and quiet convents. God speaks life into us. He brings life out of death. It's what I hope to be - a sign of life that points back to God where it seems like life is impossible...even if it is in the middle of the desert.