Good morning…
Even with all of the doors to our home closed and locked tight, I heard the birds bickering boldly in the middle of the night. Loud. Relentless. These unseen creatures were having a heated discussion. “If I open the door, trying to catch a glimpse, I might scare them away,” I thought to myself, so I stayed still in the quiet dark listening to the symphony of their strong varying voices.
I had totally forgotten this middle of the night experience until I went outside on our back porch to enjoy a fresh veggie omelet for lunch. A brilliant red cardinal first caught my attention. Then his more muted mate flew into my view. A swallow drifted by my neighbor’s roofline. Then a hummingbird fluttered close to check out our flower box. A single little chickadee nimbly hopped from branch to branch. Then one plump robin chased another up the trunk of a nearby tree. As these feathered friends greeted me visually in the bright light of day, I remembered how they had greeted me audibly, unseen in my human weakness during the middle of a weary night.
For a few quiet moments at a time, do we sit still to stretch open our ears or notice abundant life with our eyes? My dear friend Dr. Cathy Snapp says we can shift our thoughts from negative to positive by simply focusing on something soothing, something beautiful, something life-giving, for about seventeen seconds at a time. When we feel weak and weary, might we awaken our senses, breathing in deeply the ever-presence of our living God, seventeen seconds by seventeen seconds?
Why do you complain…?
Why do you say…
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:27-31, NIV).
By night may we begin to hear and by day may we learn to see the comforting presence of our living Lord. When we feel weak, when we are weary, might we trust in the unfathomable understanding of our everlasting God? As we open our five senses and inhale hope in the Lord, our power quietly increases and we are given renewed strength, seventeen attentive seconds at a time.
…Sue…
