I recently visited a friend in Prescott, Arizona. On our walk around the neighborhood, I stopped to capture an image of the blossoming beauties by the roadside. This high desert area is not just home to cactus, but oaks, cottonwoods, pines and junipers. Rugged granite outcroppings also dot the landscape.
The cactus, like the boulders, stand in contrast to the green of the trees around them. They are also prickly, spiny and tough. The flower, soft by contrast, reminds me the cactus has a purpose. It is food for many critters of the high desert. Fruit grows where the flower blooms, right between the thorns.
I admit, I haven’t always appreciated cacti. I see their thorns and characterize them as worthy of a wide berth. But I’m reminded that their exterior purposefully protects the fruit for the animals equipped to eat it, in spite of the spiny thorns.
So what do you think of when you see a cactus? Do you see danger or resilience? Do you see a meal or a menace? Are they prickly or purposeful?
It was good for me to reconsider and contemplate this spiky, desert dweller. What I know about myself is, I am too often, too quick to judge and steer clear. I’ve even met a few prickly people, and have been one more than I like to admit. Ouch!
I’m thankful I was reminded to slow down, reconsider and contemplate God’s purposes for his creation, prickly or not.
We’ve all been created on purpose and with purpose.
This is my prayer: Lord, I want to live with and see your purpose in all of your creation – whether the prickly pear cactus, or people that seem prickly on the outside. Help me to contemplate and consider all you have made, and respond kindly. Let me live my purpose for You with passion and sincerity.
“For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.” Colossians 1:16 ESV