Those who drive along Highway 18 in western Oregon each fall are greeted with a delightful surprise from the tree-covered hillside flanking the road: a giant smiley face. The cheerful face is only visible in the autumn when the Larch tree needles turn yellow, contrasting with the surrounding, dark green Douglas fir trees (which create the eyes and mouth). A lumber company planted the three-hundred-foot diameter face in 2011 as part of an effort to replenish the timber they’d harvested.
Isaiah invites us to know God as the one who brings life to desolate places. He reminded the Israelites during the barrenness of their captivity that God “[makes] rivers flow,” can “turn the desert into pools of water,” and grow “the cedar and the acacia” in the desert (Isaiah 41:18-19). God does these things not solely for His (and our) delight; He plants junipers, fir, and cypress “so that people may see and know” (v. 20) that He authors all and will ultimately redeem all—even those places thought to be “wasteland[s]” (v. 19).
Though we may not glimpse a face smiling back at us from a hillside, all of creation can remind us of God’s redemptive power over our world and our individual circumstances—even in the wake (or fear) of devastation. Let’s seek His face as our source of hope and joy amid our struggles.
