Did you think it was just a simple cactus? Look again, my friend, because you are glaring at
hope, provision, community, and the miraculous.

Ali and I were recently at the grocery store. We saw a fluorescent pink and green fruit that
looked like a cross between an artichoke, an egg plant, a hot pink rose, and a little magic. Ali
liked the way it looked and I am always up for a culinary adventure. So, we purchased it, took it
home, sliced it up with our girls after I googled how in the world to cut up a dragon fruit, and
sampled the goods.

A few weeks after trying the fruit, I was in Nicaragua and had the unusual experience of
traveling to what is called the Dry Zone. It stretches across Latin America northward all the way
to Mexico. It is an area saturated, not with water, but drought. The dry climate kicks the dust
up in the air frequently and makes it hard to breathe. In an area most of us would consider
uninhabitable, thousands of families find their sustenance there, on whatever path they can
find that takes them there.

I spent the better part of a day with some farmers who tried to find the right path to take so
their families could have sustainable food, water, and other necessities. It is with these farmers
I learned an awful lot about life from the dragon fruit. It looks like an inconspicuous little bloom
from the leaf of a cactus.

Some team members from Convoy of Hope met with the farmers long before I ever arrived.
These hard-working Nicaraguans learned that dragon fruit can grow in the most arid of
climates. With a little science, the generosity of people, some trust and hard work, the dragon
fruit plants found their home in the rocky soil of the Dry Zone.

As we walked through the field and looked at what would soon provide for their families, one of
the farmers told me something I find just fascinating. He said the dragon fruits, as they bloom,
are pollinated at night. You have to venture into the darkness to see their true beauty and
witness the very process necessary to make the harvest one day come.

Sometimes we have to venture into the darkness to see true beauty.

Some of the most miraculous seasons of growth, harvest, and provision take place when most
eyes do not see. In the darkness.

When Jesus came to the earth, He did not come to create Christianity. He did not come to
convert people. I can find 22 reasons in the New Testament as to why He came. One of the
reasons is because He is Light and He came to shine in the darkness. There are moments when
His way leads on a path where it is difficult to see. Not only can we trust He knows the way to take, and He will always be with us, but we can also trust that even in the dark times provision is on the way.

Just like the dragon fruit.