Hope Blossoms in Every Season - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - March 25, 2026
“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy...” – Isaiah 35:1-2, NIV.
Every spring, before anything else really wakes up, the first flowers to pop up in my yard are crocuses. They’re small but impossible to miss – bright purple, yellow, and orange. They push their way up through cold soil while the trees are still bare. Winter hasn’t fully let go yet. Still, there they are. Those little flowers feel like an announcement: Hope is on the way.
That image is exactly what comes to mind when I read Isaiah 35:1-2. Hope often works like a crocus flower. It doesn’t arrive when everything is warm and easy to bloom. Hope shows up early, sometimes when it seems risky to believe anything good can really happen. Hope is like a crocus pushing through frozen ground with a strong faith that God will help us with whatever we need.
Many of us know what personal deserts feel like. We may be dealing with unanswered prayers or going through a season of burnout or grief. Maybe we’re facing a relationship that feels broken beyond repair, a health diagnosis we didn’t expect, or a dream that seems to have died. When we’re going through something that feels like we’re standing in a desert wilderness, the idea of seeing hope blossom and experiencing joy can feel almost offensive. That’s because it can seem like we’re pretending that the hard times aren’t real. But notice that these Bible verses are honest about the fact that deserts and wilderness times do happen. We can expect to encounter them sometimes in this fallen world.
But Isaiah 35:1-2 promises that God – who is the source of all hope – will change hard times into joyful times. The desert itself will rejoice. The wilderness itself will blossom. The places where we struggle will become places of beauty. That’s important. God brings us hope by bringing new life into the lives we already have.
When crocuses bloom, winter doesn’t suddenly disappear. Frost can still come, and cold winds can still blow. But those flowers can point us toward a stronger faith in God. They remind us that winter is temporary, even when it still feels like it won’t let go. In the same way, hope doesn’t always erase our pain right away, but it changes how we endure it.
This Bible passage also reminds us that hope “will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.” Biblical hope gives us strong voices that dare to celebrate before everything is finished. Hope helps us worship God while the ground around our circumstances is still frozen hard. When we choose the hope God offers us, we can trust God in every season of our lives.
If you’re in a desert season right now, you can reach out to God with a prayer, like a crocus breaking through frozen soil. If you’re in a season of joy right now, Isaiah 35:1-2 is still for you, because it reminds you of where your hope comes from. The same God who brings life out of deserts is the One who will help meet your needs in every season.
So, the next time you see a small and bright crocus flower, let it preach to you. Let it remind you that God will bring renewal and revival into your life whenever you need it. The desert will be glad. The wilderness will rejoice. You can, too – not because life is easy, but because God is faithful. When you reach out to God for help, hope will rise and bring you joy!
Let’s Pray:
Dear God, I admit that some days my life feels like a desert wilderness in winter – frozen and lifeless. It’s hard to imagine anything blooming in the middle of my life right now. But thanks for being a God who can bring hope and joy into my life even in the harshest seasons. Please help me to see the “crocuses” – the signs that hope is on the way – that you’re sending me today. Give me the courage to believe that hope is pushing through the hard ground of my circumstances, even before I see the full bloom appear in my life. Please change my parched heart into a place of joy. Strengthen me while I wait with hope for the renewal and revival you plan to bring to me. I choose to trust your faithfulness over my feelings. Thank you for this winter not being permanent and for my story not being over.
I look forward to the beauty you’ll be bringing into my life. Thank you, God. Amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images-VolkovaIrina
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Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
