That the Desert Might Rejoice

Constructed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Hoover Dam was the largest federal project of its time. Building the dam was hot, dirty and often dangerous work, but more than 20,000 men, over the course of its construction from 1931 to 1936, were happy to be employed.

Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam. That’s because the initial planned site was at Boulder Canyon, about 10 miles up the Colorado River from where it is now located at Black Canyon. The dam was officially named Hoover Dam in 1947, a name that was restored by a resolution signed by President Truman.

The Hoover Dam is 726 feet tall and 1,244 feet long.  The concrete arch-gravity structure is 660 feet thick at its base and 45 feet thick at the top.  In all, there is enough concrete (4.5 million cubic yards) in Hoover Dam to build a two-lane highway from Seattle Washington to Miami Florida or a four-foot wide sidewalk around Earth at its equator.

This immense structure was built to prevent flooding as well as provide much-needed irrigation and hydroelectric power to arid regions of several surrounding states.

Greatly impressive was the fortitude of the thousands of workers that endured amazingly harsh conditions and extreme dangers to complete Hoover Dam almost two years ahead of schedule.  Its completion, however, was not without loss.  The Bureau of Reclamation has estimated that 107 workers lost their lives while building the dam.

William Barclay wrote: “Men lost their lives in that project which was to turn a dust-bowl into fertile land.  When the [Hoover Dam project] was completed, the names of those who had died were put on a tablet and the tablet was put into the great wall of the dam, and on it there was the inscription:

‘These died that the desert might rejoice and blossom as the rose.’”

When our sins left us in the “desert of death and destruction” (cf. Matthew 7:13-14; Romans 6:23), God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross as payment for our sins (Ephesians 1:7).  Through Him, you and I may have forgiveness and eternal life.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

God has promised to provide forgiveness and eternal life to those who will: place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ (Acts 2:38).

Jesus died so that those in the dismal and deadly desert of SIN may – through their trusting obedience – “blossom as the rose” to eternal life.

Won’t YOU trust and obey Him?

David A. Sargent, Minister