WILDERNESS EXPERIENCE

"At once the Spirit sent Jesus out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him." (Mark 1:12-13 NIV)

Reading this, I was struck by the fact that in the same way we are all sent into the deserts of our lives.

In many ways our entire lives here on Earth are desert lives, desert experiences. "Forty" is the usual Biblical expression for "many," and can refer to our whole lifespan. And while we are here, we are all subject to the devil's temptations.

Wild animals can be both beautiful and very dangerous from snow leopards to mosquitoes, from grizzly bears to bacteria. They can be our friends or our enemies. Human animals can be the most frightening and deadly of all or the best of good friends and neighbors.

And unseen by us, our guardian angels always attend us, protecting and guiding.