God excels at creating life when we’re surrounded by death.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many.
But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness,
for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin
and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:17 New Living Translation

Delta Ponds, Eugene, Oregon, Copyright Douglas P Brauner

I took this picture on August 6, 2015, yet it looks like one I’d take in October or November. My home state of Oregon is under a severe drought and it shows itself in the trees, bushes and ponds. This is not the time of year that you’d expect to hear the crunching of dead leaves under your feet, yet that was too often the sound that I heard. People are nervous, scared and praying for rain.

However, I was surrounded by life in the midst of this drought.

I experienced this life at the Delta Ponds wetlands just a hop, skip and jump from the home in which I was raised. We called them the gravel pits when I grew up. We fished here. We swam here. I smoked my first cigarette here. I rode my bike around the gravel pits on my way to pick beans, and later, to weigh those beans for the pickers. They have always been a source of life for me.

And because the gravel pits have been turned into a wetland park (of which I am very grateful), life thrives here even in times of drought. I saw turtles, frogs, blue and green heron, great egrets, ducks and bees. I witness a mother wood duck caring for her little ones. I heard the familiar sound of Killdeer. I scared a nutria into a deep dive.

Like Oregon, our lives experience drought. There are times when it seems that the leaves of life are falling and we’re thirsting for relief. We might even feel that God has left us or that it’s his fault that we’re experiencing this drought. Paul reminds us that sin is real and that through this sin death rules. Yet, greater still is the life that we have through the one who speaks into our drought of sin with his merciful words from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

For the next several days we’ll walk through our times of drought as I share pictures from the Delta Ponds wetlands. May we experience the hope of life as we witness the thriving life of the gravel pits in midst of drought.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner