JANUARY 13 - Silence

JANUARY 13 – Silence

 

Let all the earth be silent before him, — HABAKKUK 2:20

 

The Sierra Mountains of California rise abruptly from the flat floor of the Mojave Desert. It’s a place of dramatic vistas, and I love traveling there this time of year. Right now the Sierras are covered in snow. And so is the desert, which stretches all the way to the eastern horizon. It’s one long, high, wide, breathtaking panorama of endless white.

 

It’s an infinite, colorless world; it’s also a quiet world. Not a stirring in the air, not the sound of a car in the distance, not the trickling of a brook or the rush of a river. You can hear — no, feel — the quiet. It’s heavy and profound.

 

On this crisp January day, the Sierras, and the desert lying at its feet, are a perfect illustration of Habakkuk 2:20. The awesome display of God’s creative power seems much more powerful when it is silent in its   splendor. Charles Wesley wrote,

 

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded,

For with blessing in His hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth,

Our full homage to demand.3

 

Find time today to get outside, even if you have to wrap up warmly. You may not be near a desert or the mountains, but locate a place of quiet, a scene of icicle silence. A park covered in snow. A bird feeder all frosty. A tree wearing icy diamonds in the sunlight. A distant woods across a field. Or perhaps watch the cool, pink winter sunset from your back porch. Take in the beauty around you . . . then join in with the landscape and be still before God in wordless worship.

 

Lord of creation, I want to learn from the motionless, stark landscape of winter. Help me not to rush into your presence today, but praise you with a quiet heart rather than in a tumble of words. May I find long moments to be silent before you.