Everything is Possible with God: The Giant Saguaro

Never have I been more sure of that statement than when I look at a giant saguaro which is truly one of the most amazing creations in the world. They can grow up to 20 or 30 feet tall, live for hundreds of years and only grow in the Sonoran Desert. It takes highly specific criteria for them to be able to exist at all. They start from a tiny seed that falls into sandy soil near a larger nurse plant and then, somehow survive being eaten by various desert critters at any moment in their first 5 years.

During their hundred-plus-year life, they grow incredibly slowly, less than an inch a year. if they make it through the very first couple of years, they still will have to endure floods, fires, lack of water, and every other imaginable hardship. It’s amazing there are any, much less the 2 million that live primarily in the Sonoran desert.

They give back to the desert as well. They are places where birds roost and insects pollinate and the fruit feeds all kinds of animals. Saguaros really are the kings of the desert. In fact, when you see a picture of a southwestern desert, there is always a Saguaro in it. But actually that they only grow in a small section of the Sonoran desert. But their huge stature and welcoming arms make them synonymous with deserts everywhere Those stunning arms that we love so much? A saguaro doesn’t even begin to sprout one for the first seventy years of life.

So what can be learned from these creatures? I say creatures because they look almost human, in fact, the Native Americans in the area believe they are our ancestors. These giant plants make me realize how miraculous our existence is. The incredible specificness that has to happen for us to be here at this moment in time. In Matthew 6:28 Jesus said for us to not be anxious about worldly things, but to look at the lilies of the field and how magnificent they are.

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

If God can provide for them, why not us? I am sure the giant Saguaro would agree.

In my life, I’ve felt that God has guided me, protected me, and led me to this beautiful Sonoran Desert where I now live. The breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, amazing plants and animals remind me daily that I can survive every imaginable problem, and still thrive. That where ever He has put me I can bloom and grow and even become magnificent.

Hard to imagine I could ever be as magnificent as a Saguaro. But I still have a few years to work on it.