When you cannot hear God speaking
In the morning cool, I set out to walk. The recalcitrant sun no longer hides behind a bank of clouds. It has appeared at last, touching the tops of the trees.
The birds are singing. Flitting from this branch to that one; from the bulrushes to yet another tree, their songs are invisible streamers, criss-crossing above me somewhere.
I turn at the curve when all at once…I look up from the pavement where I’ve been tracking my feet. In a split second, the world right in front of me comes into sharp, clear focus. I am seeing in high definition, and it’s wonderful. I test my vision, moving my eyeballs side to side and then straight ahead. The clarity that’s there is unreal.
Unbidden come these words, “God is still in this world!”
I keep walking. Now just before me, a solid line of trees. Like sentries, they stand shoulder to shoulder, tipped golden in the light of the sun, and those birds, they keep right on singing.
Again, the words resound. “God is still in this world.”
As I walk, a different scene comes to mind. In a foreign theater where bombs fall and people quail, even there I can see it. “God is still in this world.” In the most hellish of times, his presence remains. Nothing’s escaping his gaze.
Chuff, chuff, chuff. My feet keep on moving. Everywhere, there are signs that keep affirming the beautiful message. The flowers I’ve just planted in giant Grecian urns. The breeze that brushes my face. The taste of coffee in my mug. The green of everything around me. The deer that bound down the trails, tails white. All of creation is shouting the same song, “God. Is still. In the world.”
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As I walked, I thought of you, and I thought how many are so heavy laden, desperate to hear God’s voice. “I cannot seem to hear him!” they say. In this wild, hopeless cry, there’s despair.
I know that wildness. I know that despair. But I know something good and wholly true, and this is it.
When you cannot hear God speaking, look for him instead.
I mean it. Stop straining your ears. Start using your eyes. Look up! Look up from where your feet are standing and tune in to what you can see. In the wide world around you, in the small things you love, in nature itself, in the very breath that fills your lungs, “God is still in this world.”
This is not too hard to do. It will bring you the greatest relief. Amen.
P.S. – I chose this photo to illustrate my point. You don’t have to “see his feet,” i.e., hear his voice audibly. You will find him in the prints he leaves behind, and you will know–he’s been with you all along.