Cathedral State Park, Nevada
Isaiah 40:24
Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And a strong wind carries them away like stubble.
— NASB
Coming from the southeastern part of the country, my familiarity with
sagebrush was through years and years of watching westerns on
television. At first those shows were in black and white, but even when
the TV show The Virginian switched to color and I got to see Trampas’
stunning blues eyes as the stars rode into my living room, my image of the
west was still pretty monochromatic. Lots and lots of brown vegetation
with odd rock formations jutting up into the solid blue sky, but it was very
different when I was surrounded by its vastness and its nuances of color
and shapes.
Cathedral State Park, Nevada
Sagebrush was one of those things. I had no real feelings about the
ubiquitous groundcover. It did indeed cover miles and miles of land, and it
did come in a multitude of colors ranging from almost white to a lovely
frosted blue green, but I rarely stopped to take a picture of it. It was
everywhere doing what it was supposed to do, keeping very fragile topsoil
across the plains from blowing away. If the western Dust Bowl of the
1930’s taught us anything, it was how important the role of sagebrush was
to the overall stability of the desert.
But when sagebrush becomes uprooted and loses its purpose, it changes
its very nature. It changes from sagebrush to tumbleweed. It becomes
rootless and begins to blow wherever the wind blows it. At first it seemed
harmless, When the Sons of the Pioneers, a classic, western singing group,
sang about the Tumbling Tumbleweed with a harmonious lilting melody, it
seemed like a lovely symbol of the desert. However, somewhere along the
way, I began to hear stories about and then saw glimpses of, how
dangerous this plant was when transformed into tumbleweed and joined
other tumbleweeds.
As the sage lost its purpose, it became brittle. The supple flowers that
gave it color became like briars. As the wind blew it into the path of other
tumbleweeds, it became entangled. The renegade weeds grew to a
suffocating mass that moved at will and could engulf a house or a car in a
matter of moments without warning.
I had no idea until I began to read accounts of people being stranded in
their homes and cars for days as people tried to figure out how to free
them. One night I stopped at a campground in southern Nevada. As I made
a dash to the bathhouse that evening ahead of an incoming storm, I was
alarmed to see a growing mound of tumbleweed between there and my
camper. All of a sudden, the tumbleweed did not seem so nostalgic or
harmless. Thankfully, the wind moved the growing heap out into the
canyon during the night, but that image lingers.
As children of God, we must stay connected to the source of life that gives
us purpose and value. We must stay rooted and aware of our purpose.
Most of us are not called to be famous or do heroic actions, but we are all
called to stay rooted in who we are created to be. We are called to be
people who understand that our ordinary life has a greater calling than
just ourselves.This something that makes us better together than
separated by hate. May we be people who are not so dried out that we
become brittle and tossed by the wind, joining with others who are
rootless and propelled about by the winds of anger and self-servitude.
Prayer:
Oh, God, Help us to see in ourselves the value of the sagebrush of “the
prairie” and to acknowledge its purpose and necessity. In so doing, allow
us to see with clarity our call to be connected to the rootage of Love and
Grace. Help us to be mindful that the time we help tend to the roots of
others is important to us all. Guide us to understand that when we help
others stay rooted in You, we are tending to our own calling. You have
created us for the community and we pray for those who have been cut off
from that truth. May we be vigilant in finding ways to reconnect those
amongst us, those who the wind is tugging at their very souls. Amen