Lightning and God speaking…

It was an abrupt wake up. The alarm didn’t go off; the gradual, I am waking and thinking about rising. Nor was it a beautiful sunrise coming in the eastern window. It was a sudden crack of thunder and lightning piercing my closed eyes and jarring me from a dream.

I love rain. I love to hear the rain especially at the cabin on the vaulted ceiling. It was about that time that I remembered I now have a vaulted ceiling downstairs. I can listen to the rain. That brought me downstairs long before I would have preferred, to sit in the new, not finished room, and listen to the rain, read through my prayer book and think. From where I am sitting there is a window to the east and I can see lightning bolts shake the eastern sky, somewhere near Rochester. Amazingly beautiful and kind of scary at the same time. That’s kind of how I think of God a lot of times: amazed and yet a little scared. The power that God has within his voice to create and move a Mountain is the same power that reaches down to rescue a bird and move a bunny. The same heart that will rebuke the winds also calms the heart of a child, reassures a mom, and walks with a lonely soul through a valley in their life. The lightning seems frightening, but watching it from afar is breathtaking. In the middle of the storm, not so much.

God wants me to quit looking at the lightning and start seeing what the lightning illuminates. We tend to focus on things that are often blurry and it doesn’t make sense. But when we step back, we can see what is being lit up all around us and God has things for us to see that we won’t notice if we are focused only on the lightning. God always has something to say. Sometimes I get caught up in the words he is using and miss the meaning. So it sit in the quiet, sight the thunder rolling and the lightning off in the distance. I smell the fresh air that comes after the rain. I hear the drops on the roof. My stomach is growling, and no supper last night made it a bit more pronounced. There is a calm in the morning… a very peaceful calm and I am listening to see what God is saying. The distractions can wait: they will always be in life. For now, the rain, the lightning and distant rumblings of thunder are very soothing and comforting: in an odd and interesting way.