“The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose”

I walked around the neighborhood this morning and was stunned by all the pretty plants that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s interesting how you notice things when you’re walking and not when you’re driving.

I thought I was in the desert, where nothing grows and nothing blooms, but there so many gorgeous plants blooming in all the neighbor’s yards that it gives me hope! Maybe I can grow something here after all.

I thought of Isaiah’s prophesy that “the wilderness and the ^asolitary place shall be ^bglad for ^cthem; and the ^ddesert shall rejoice, and ^eblossom as the rose” (Isaiah 35:1).

Isaiah was talking about the day of restoration, building Zion, and Christ coming again – how the Lord would prosper Zion even though it seemed impossible, impossible like growing things in the desert. As the Saints gathered during the early church, this prophesy was fulfilled. In Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord uses the same language as Isaiah’s prophecy to reprimand the Saints who were nervous about giving up their possessions for Zion:

“Let them repent of all their sins, and of all their covetous desires, before me, saith the Lord; for what is ^aproperty unto me? …For have I not the fowls of heaven, and also the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the mountains? Have I not ^amade the earth? Do I not hold the ^bdestinies of all the armies of the nations of the earth?

“Therefore, will I not make ^asolitary places to bud and to ^bblossom, and to bring forth in abundance?

“… Is there not room enough on the mountains of ^aAdam-ondi-Ahman, … that you should covet that which is but the drop, and neglect the more weighty matters? Therefore, come up hither unto the land of my people, even Zion” (Doctrine and Covenants 117:4-9)

Nothing is impossible with to the Lord. If he can make the desert blossom as a rose, he can make us prosperous even when we seem to be in a desert. After all, He holds the destinies of the armies and nations of earth, He created the earth – we don’t need to worry about “drops” as small as property, cars, clothes, finances, 10% of our income – as long as we follow Him.

The Lord will take care of all the “drops” in our lives, if we will devote ourselves to the “weightier matters.”