The story of the Bible begins with God planting a garden in the middle of wilderness.

And it's a gift for all of humanity.

But this oasis of life is still surrounded by wilderness.

And if the humans can't learn to enjoy the life of God in the garden, where else can they go?

God's partners, if they don't want to trust God's word and wisdom, then they will be cutting themselves off from the garden that God wants to give them as a gift.

And so, it's easy to think of the wilderness as a consequence.

Humanity failed to live by God's life, and so

they're paying the price for their folly. But in every story of the wilderness, God meets humanity

there and shows them mercy. And God uses the sad reality of the wilderness as an opportunity

to train humanity. This is why God had Moses lead Israel through the wilderness for 40 years on the way to

the land of promise.

Moses perceives a purpose of God at work in the wilderness to transform them into the

kind of people who are ready to receive the gift of the garden land.

When the wilderness wanderings are over,

Moses gives a long speech to the generation that grew up in the wilderness

as they prepare to enter the garden land.

And he says to them,

remember that the garden land is a gift from God.

So when you experience all that abundance to come,

don't let it make you proud.

Or the abundance can ruin you. A heart that is not trained to view every moment of goodness

in my life as a sheer gift from God, then there can be such a thing as too much goodness that will deceive your

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