"For he (Zacharias) remained speechless"
Luke 1:22
Do you have a sense of amazement, wonder and awe about God? There are so many things about God that are wonderful and amazing, it should be hard to think of him without being left speechless.
What words can adequately express God? We cannot easily contain, explain or define him. The way to really see Jesus is not to analyze him, but to go speechless. We need to get quiet and listen and learn.
There are times in which we need to cease our constant inner chattering before God and quiet our souls to simply listen. It is in this speechless moment that we experience the wonder of God. He discloses a portion of our role in his plan and calls us to embrace it by a step of faith. God has a plan to rescue humanity and has chosen to accomplish it through normal people like you and me.
In various ways, at the right time, he communicates that part of our role that we need to know about right now. Once in awhile you'll see a small child trying to get the attention of a parent. He'll start tugging on the mom's dress or the dad's coat sleeve and calling their names, "Mom, Dad." Sometimes we're just so busy, so distracted, so preoccupied that we don't hear the voices of our little people until they do whatever it takes to get our attention.
I wonder if that's a reverse picture of how we are with God. We are like the busy parents and the Spirit of God is like the small child, tugging at our sleeves, saying, "Hey, I want to talk. Stop for a minute. Listen to me."
God invites us to actively trust him. There once was a man walking through the countryside on a starry night, holding a flashlight that illuminated a small area directly in front of him. It brought him a limited sense of security, but yet he remained fearful about what lay in the darkness beyond the reach of the flashlight. At the same moment, at another part of the meadow, another man is walking, too. He fixes his eyes on the starry sky and as his night vision takes over, he is able to see adequately in the dark as he quiets himself and listens to the night sounds. He walks not in fear, but in wisdom.
Far too often our religion is like the man with the flashlight. We have our safe little cocoon of understanding and think we are secure. Yet, in truth, we are trapped by our limited perspective.
We need a larger perspective. We need the perspective of the starry night. We need a vision of the majesty of God that will hold us steady when it looks like all of life is about to crumble around our feet. We need to know we serve a God who is bigger than all of our human effort. We serve a God who is high and lifted up, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And God wants to show himself to us. Sometimes we just need to quiet ourselves, look up, get speechless and listen.
God invites us to an experience of joyful hope. Come on in; the water's fine. Like swimming in the ocean on a hot summer day, waves of hope and joy flood our soul, and we share in the pleasure of his grace. My prayer for you is that you may appreciate a renewed sense of wonder about God.
"Shhhhh" ... Someone greater than an angel stands among us. "Hush" ... be silent, listen, learn and then become alive in divine hope.
As always, see you next week and have a great day.
The Rev. Carl S. Mesiti is pastor of Niedringhaus United Methodist Church in Granite City.¨
