Saturday Silence and Sunday Storms
Dateline-Tuscaloosa, Alabama-Monday, April 12
Social distancing and home quarantine came first. Weeks went by and we learned to function without people around us. We kept in touch by phone and by Zoom meetings. Then yesterday happened. Storms throughout the south wreaked havoc on our neighborhoods and homes. The sheer power demonstrated was overwhelming. Enormous trees uprooted or snapped like twigs.
And now…there is complete silence and isolation as power and the internet are both off. My phone is dying. Social distancing just got worse.
I sit in darkness, thinking. I can literally feel my heartbeat and silence. No electrical sounds echo through my house. There is just me and my thoughts. No distractions.
Can I embrace this moment? Am I so accustomed to noise and electronics that I have forgotten the power of silence? What are the lessons of this time? What is God trying to teach us?
I hear His voice in my head…Be still, and know that I am God. I know the plans for you, for your future and your hope. All your days were ordained by me; I know the hairs on your head; I knew you in your mother’s womb. I am. (Psalms 46:10, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139, Exodus 3:14)
Easter Sunday was yesterday but today, I feel the silence of Saturday. As the disciples sat around and wondered ‘what just happened’? Is He who He said he was? We put all our trust in His teaching but today…He is gone and it is so very silent. They must have felt so disappointed, so confused. Surely, they were replaying all His words to them. Going over and over what He said to them, remembering every word, reminding each other of His words. In many ways, the silence of Saturday was good for the disciples as they were forced to remember all He had taught. For if not for Silent Saturday the joy of Sunday may not have been fully realized.
This is what I’m reminding myself of today in my silence. In the dark days, in the days of want, in the days of electronic disability, even in these days…He is. Listen. Do you feel your own heartbeat? You are alive. Sunday came. He is near.
I sit in darkness, thinking. I can literally feel my heartbeat and silence. No electrical sounds echo through my house. There is just me and my thoughts. No distractions.
Can I embrace this moment? Am I so accustomed to noise and electronics that I have forgotten the power of silence? What are the lessons of this time? What is God trying to teach us?
I hear His voice in my head…Be still, and know that I am God. I know the plans for you, for your future and your hope. All your days were ordained by me; I know the hairs on your head; I knew you in your mother’s womb. I am. (Psalms 46:10, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139, Exodus 3:14)
Easter Sunday was yesterday but today, I feel the silence of Saturday. As the disciples sat around and wondered ‘what just happened’? Is He who He said he was? We put all our trust in His teaching but today…He is gone and it is so very silent. They must have felt so disappointed, so confused. Surely, they were replaying all His words to them. Going over and over what He said to them, remembering every word, reminding each other of His words. In many ways, the silence of Saturday was good for the disciples as they were forced to remember all He had taught. For if not for Silent Saturday the joy of Sunday may not have been fully realized.
This is what I’m reminding myself of today in my silence. In the dark days, in the days of want, in the days of electronic disability, even in these days…He is. Listen. Do you feel your own heartbeat? You are alive. Sunday came. He is near.
