Desert Thunder

“Sing to God; make music to praise his name.
Make a highway for him to ride through the deserts.
The Lord is His name. Celebrate in His presence.
The God who is in His holy dwelling place is
the Father of the fatherless
and the Defender of widows.”

Psalm 68:4-5

I will never forget the “thunder” I heard in the desert. It was the thunder of a camel race. I
heard it long before I saw where the “thunder” was coming from. The camel riders in their
flowing white robes and ornate headdresses were heard before they were seen. Clouds of sand dust filled the air. The race eminated power, both of camel and rider. In the unbroken desert sands, the powerful camels and the billowing robes of the riders were nothing less than a jaw-dropping drama that seemed to come right out of a movie. Crowds of people lining the sandy raceway were going wild in the excitement. The thunderous power created a deafening sound that caused all of the spectators to move far back from the path of the ground-shaking racers.

The Psalmist captures a glimpse of such a scene. . . but the race is not one of human nor
beastly power.

The Rider is God Himself. All-powerful, all-mighty, focused, fully present, and thundering
through Time.

We become aware of His Presence through a strange, distant sound , , , before we see the
cloud surrounding Him as He comes our way. When we realize Who is in the Cloud, we
instinctively step back, because there is awesome Power in the middle of that moving cloud of sand dust.

In the most desolate, desert places and times of our lives, we feel alone, unprotected, and
have experienced great losses, like the “fatherless” and “widows” in this verse, Then, we hear something… a Sound grabs our attention, and we begin to see the Cloud moving our direction. The Rider comes into our sight . . . into our lives. He chooses to come.

He is not focusing on a trophy for winning a race. He has come, not for the praises of the
powerful. He comes to those who are unprotected . . . unloved . . . alone in this world, no matter how that Reality became theirs . . . His coming into our worlds is not for trophies, or accolades of the rich and famous. . . He is not focused on Himself. His Focus is not on the spectator crowds watching Him from the sidelines. . . at a safe distance from Him.

His focus is on those who are most unseen. . . most unprotected . . . most alone. . . most
vulnerable . . . Those who feel the most unable to offer Him anything of value in this world.

He comes to those who grab onto Him in the desperation of knowing that they have nothing to offer but themselves. Those who, out of great sorrow, know that He has come for them.