An oasis is a small place in a dessert that has some form of water supply and can support a micro ecosystem. Typically oases form in topographical depressions and are supplied by underground rivers or aquifers which push to the surface and form pools. Further, because oases are formed in low areas, they serve as a collection point for regional rainfall. Migrating birds stop at these water sources and deposit seeds causing vegetation to grow which then support other types of life. Oases play important roles in desert regions by allowing trade routes to form in places that would otherwise be impassable and for humans to reside in areas that would otherwise be barren.

Another Hebrew word that is translated “hope” is a word which means “a collection; like threads making up a single cord (see Dec. 4 post) or a pool (of water).”

Consider what this means as we meditate on hope this Advent season.

I haven’t spent much time in deserts, but one doesn’t need to spend much time there to learn that the most valuable resource in such places is not gold or diamonds. It’s water.

The Bible presents two faces to the wilderness. On the one hand, the wilderness (which refers to an uninhabited place, but in the Middle East is most often a desert) can be a safe place where one can flee from enemies (Moses fleeing from Pharaoh after he murdered the Egyptian, for example). On the other, it’s a place of testing and formation (Israel for 40 years, Jesus for 40 days, etc.). Regardless of the purpose for time in the desert, without a supply of water, survival is impossible.

The similarity between an oasis and hope is easy to discern. For someone traveling in a desert, sun-scorched and desperately thirsty, an oasis is the only means of survival.

An oasis is a spectacle in a desert because it audaciously sustains green and lovely things in the middle of a hostile environment. To the one on a journey through the wilderness whose eyes have grown accustomed to barrenness and sand, it reminds him that the desert is not the ultimate reality—there’s a better place on the other side of the wilderness. An oasis is where a form of the better place pushes through the surface of the desert floor. It’s evidence of the life that’s waiting at the end of the journey through the wilderness.

Jesus, the hope of heaven, is the oasis in the middle of our hostile wilderness.

Read: Psalm 42

Pray: Jesus, you are the source of living water in the broken wilderness of life. You broke into our world in the lowly places and call all who would hear to come and drink without cost. Great Oasis, born of woman and born from the grave, you are the source of hope in the middle of hostility. Your dwelling among us is the evidence of the destination at the end of this journey. May I drink deeply from your inexhaustible supply of hope to sustain me until that great day.