Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I recently joined family members for a Celebration of Life for my Uncle Ed and Aunt Marilynn.
We joined together in the little town of Three Rivers, CA; in the foothills near the southern-most entrance to Sequoia National Park.
Our plan had been to scatter their ashes among the giant redwoods there, but the heavy snows
and rains of the past winter meant that the groves were still inaccessible. We settled for scattering the
ashes in the roaring Kaweah River, which was at higher levels than I had ever seen it.
Seeing all the snow still on the mountaintops and watching all of the water rushing down toward
the valley below – I couldn’t help but think of a trip to the desert that we had taken ten years ago…
Michyl-Shannon and I drove out to Anza-Borrego State Park just north of the Salton Sea and
Death Valley in the hopes of seeing lots of desert wildflowers. The docent at the visitor center summed
our chances up this way, “Good Luck!” Even for the Southern California deserts, 2013 was a particularly dry year in a series of dry years. The wildflowers we could find were few and far between; with few
blooms on the plants that did manage to bloom.
We hiked up into a canyon along a very dry wash for about a mile and a half and only the hardiest shrubs and cacti showed signs of greenery. But the further up into the canyon we hiked, the greener
things became. Bushes and shrubs were fuller and greener, with more blooms (buzzing with bees and
wasps), and we noticed the wash was no longer dry. A few wildflowers could even be spotted. As we
climbed, the dry wash became a faint trickle of water which became a small stream and then a larger
gurgling stream.
Grasses, willows, cattails, and then small palm trees began to appear as the stream tumbled over larger
rocks and collected in deeper and wider pools. The water was louder the higher into the canyon we went, and so we noticed were the birds. When we reached our destination, a cool and restful palm grove surrounding huge boulders nestled in cool, damp ground, we found that the birds and gurgling water made for perfect napping background music!
Above that grove I found a little waterfall seemingly pouring directly from the rocks themselves. The
pool beneath was clear and cold; with tadpoles swimming in it, dragonflies skimming the surface, and small frogs and toads perched on rocks behind the fall. I remember thinking of a picture from our scriptures:
“He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.” (Psalm 78)
Even in one of the driest places on earth, in one of the driest years, God was bringing water from the
rocks and sustaining life and beauty in an inhospitable land.
I can only imagine what that little desert oasis is like this year, with all the water that is surely rushing
into it. If it had been beautiful in that drought year a decade ago, I’m sure it must be lush and flowering this year. In dry years and wet, God remains faithful, miracles still happen, and each day is indeed a blessing.
My Aunt and Uncles’ ashes rushed down the hill; and will eventually be spread all over the globe as
the water spreads them far and wide. I like to think that God will use them to bring more bright blossoms into our world, and that even in the driest of years they will be in the water that God sends to water the beautiful garden God calls into existence all around the world.
Peace,
Pastor Layne