August 15, 2025 // Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10
Reflect on the Word //
The airport swelled with voices, the clatter of rolling suitcases, and the sharp cadence of boarding calls, yet I remained motionless, staring out the tall windows as the sun set over the runway. My flight would not board for another hour, but I was already somewhere between what had been and what was coming next. I tried to distract myself with my book, trying to steady the ache in my chest. Lord, is there a place for me in all this unknown?
It is there, in the raw middle of an unraveling, that the Word enters with unexpected gentleness: “The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God” (Revelation 12:6).
The woman—clothed with the sun, crowned with stars, laboring through pain—she flees. Not to escape in fear, but to trust. Because the desert is not desolation. It is prepared.
This passage from Revelation pulses with hope. The red dragon waits to devour. The child is saved. And the woman is not left alone. God prepared a place for her.
Prepared. The word will not let me go. It is personal, specific, intimate. The Lord does not find her a hiding spot. He prepares it. He carves out holy ground in the wilderness. He knows what we need before we ask. He makes room in the wasteland for safety, healing, waiting. In His eyes, the desert is not punishment. It is protection.
Sister, we all face seasons of desert: loss, betrayal, transition, suffering. And we, too, may feel like everything is spinning. But God has already gone ahead. There is a place. There is provision. And it has your name on it.
Together, we can believe this: When our strength fails, salvation and power come (see Revelation 12:10). When the dragon threatens, God prepares. When we flee, we flee into the arms of a Father Who is never surprised, never late, and never indifferent.
We are not forgotten. We are not exposed. We are not alone. We are loved, led, and hidden in the heart of the Father, even in the desert.
Relate to the Lord // Are you in the middle of something hard? Take heart, He is preparing a place for you.
Rose Coleman is an elementary school teacher with a heart for pilgrimage. She traveled the globe on a ship during college and spent some years in the convent as a religious sister. She was a contributing author to All She Had, Blessed Conversations: Rooted, and our children’s devotional prayer book called Rise Up. Find out more about her here.
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