GOD’S OASIS!

  ‘Devil’s Hole’ photo by USFW is CC 2.0.

Can you imagine the joy you would have if you found water in the middle of the Mohave Desert! It’s there in the form of a fissure in the rocks only 6 feet wide and 16 feet long!  This opening leads to a vast cavern over 300 feet deep!  Whoever found it named it ‘The Devils Hole’.  (See photo above.). The name is, according to Wikipedia a cultural shorthand for places that seemed unnaturally deep, loud, or dangerous to early inhabitants, invoking supernatural explanations for natural phenomena.  You would think that whoever discovered it would have been super blessed and named it ‘God’s Gift’ which it is! 

Believe it or not it is home to the rarest fish in the world, the Pup Fish.  Currently there are only 100 of them living on the edge of existence in the smallest known habitat of any vertebrae!  The water in this vast cavern averages 93 degrees and contains very little oxygen.  But God had a plan.  This tiny 1-inch-long fluorescent blue fish can stop breathing for two hours at a time to survive!  They were listed as endangered in 1967.  And, as a result, to visit their home, you have to walk on a chain link fence path to their location.  BOO.   

The ’Devils Hole’ is an oasis in the desert!  The perfect metaphor for any time God gives you the gift of an oasis when you are in a spiritual desert; a dry, desolate place in your life.  I’m thinking of my own life.  In my 20’s, I was two and a half years as a ‘non major’ at the University of Washington and desperate to know who I was and who I would become.  I went into my back yard and threw my hands in the air and asked God, “What do you want me to do with these hands’.  I met Jesus Christ and went to career counseling.  I told the counselor that I wanted to be an engineer.  She said my aptitudes were too low.  She asked me if I ever heard of Industrial Design which is a combination of some engineering and mostly art.  She asked me if I ever had an art course.  My response was, “who me”!  I had a little art in Jr. High School and that was all.  She suggested that I take an art course.  I signed up for Basic Drawing.  When I entered the room for my first class, God’s gift was waiting for me.  I became an artist and ultimately a Professor of Art and Chairman of the Art Department at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa for 26 years!  God’s gift was like an oasis in what was a desert in my life!!! 

I have heard of much more dramatic gifts given to people who were desperate for an oasis in their lives.  One such person put a gun to his head to commit suicide, but God gave him a gift of intervention.  He heard a voice say, “Don’t do it”!  He felt God’s presence and became a Christian! 

My wife and I joined a small group from our church.  A retired pastor Paul told us several stories which are excellent examples of God providing an oasis for those struggling in the desert of their lives.   Paul and his wife were in bible school together.  Money was tight.  They ran out of food! Desperate, they sat down at their dinner table to pray, thanking God for the dinner they didn’t have!  The doorbell rang and when they opened the door, there was a basket of food on their porch!

Paul also shared a powerful testimony of his grandfather’s obedience to God and the miraculous result of his obedience!  His grandfather was also a preacher.  He lived in the Dakotas.  He scheduled a revival in his church.  A blizzard hit the first day of his scheduled revival.  He decided to go to the church anyway.  No one was there.  God told him to preach anyway! He lit the fire in the stove and preached his sermon and went home.

Several years later a man in a suit showed up at his church and introduced himself to Paul’s grandfather.  He asked him if he had a mortgage on the church building.  He answered, “yes”, he did.  The man told him that he wanted to pay off his mortgage.  He said that he was in the balcony of the church when he preached that sermon to what he thought was an empty church and he got saved!!!  He was, at that time a homeless man in desperate need of a warm place to stay.  He found the door to the church open and hid in the balcony.  He said to Paul’s grandfather, “thank God you lit the fire!!!  I am now a successful businessman and want to pay off your mortgage!” This is another powerful example of God providing the gift of an oasis for someone in desperate need. 

This post will hopefully make you increasingly thankful for the God we serve.  His goodness is without end!  Take time to think about your life and the gifts He has given you when you needed them the most.  Perhaps He has an oasis waiting for you!

REMEMBER AND GIVE THANKS!