Lovely sunny Arizona is a prickly place.
Obviously, the cacti are prickly, but so are the bougainvilleas, and the orange trees. There’s not much grass cover, instead there are sharp gravel lawns. Don’t fall on a desert hike. You’ll cut yourself on a sharp rock, or you could bump into a cactus. Prickly places are part of the territory, but so is beauty.
The cacti are starting to bloom, a seeming miracle. The rocks are pinkish, terra-cotta and deep red, beautiful as they reflect the setting sun. There is also rest mixed with the prickles, as I noted one morning spying a bird sitting peacefully in her nest. She was secure among the thorns of the saguaro arms that protected her in her prickly place.
Life, like Arizona, is full of “prickly places”, isn’t it?
So I’m motivated to watch for the corresponding beauty. I see it in praying friends, cheerful grandkids, beautiful vistas, and fun despite the prickles, because really, they don’t define me. My Heavenly Father does. I can rest with Him, and like the bird perfectly at peace in the prickly arms of her cactus home, so am I in His arms. “Don’t be afraid,” He whispers in my ear. “Don’t worry, I see you. I’m here”. It’s good to be with Him, and in a way I’m safest in the prickly places, because there my eyes stay fixed on Him.
The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27