Deserts and Donkeys

Do you ever feel like your routine is dried out and boring, like you are following donkeys around in the desert in search of grass.

With every step, do you feel the unbearable heat, the need for relief, and the frustration of being surrounded by situations that seem unchangeable?

What do you do when you wake up in the middle of a hard situation day after day after day?

How do you handle the desert-seasons of life?

What do you think about as you trudge through the hot, barren sand?

Maybe your desert is a

Dysfunctional family

or

Stressful job

or

Unbearable grief

or

an unhappy marriage

or

incurable illnesses.

Maybe it’s something totally different.

Whatever it is that causes you to long for daily relief,

consider the legacy of this one person tucked into one short verse in the middle of Genesis.

The sons of Zibeon:

Aiah and Anah.

This is the Anah who discovered the

hot springs in the desert while he was

grazing the donkeys of his father

Zibeon.

Genesis 36::24

Of all the men and women mentioned in the line of Esau,

Anah gets an extra line.

He did something in the desert.

He did something while going about his father’s business.

He did something while leading the most stubborn animal created in search of grass.

He discovered hot springs.

His life was probably never quite the same after this particular day.

He must have become a hero as he ran back with news that somewhere in the middle of nowhere there was fresh water!

Anah suddenly had a story.

Anah suddenly had a reason to return to that same desert place again and again.

He had found life in the midst of death.

Green grass surely grew all around this hot spring.

Hope was born in the desert when Anah walked with his eyes open through a dry, barren land.

Today, if you find yourself waking up in a desert,

think of Anah and have hope.

Open your eyes!

Look for fresh water in the middle of your dry, barren day!

Hot springs are there………waiting to be discovered by you!