Something Heard in the Silence

A Tiny Cross

eryn edlund

I tiptoe in quietly

and watch Him

from my little corner

I see Him kneeling there

I can't see His face

it's turned away

I can see His shoulders

trembling ever so slightly

I can see Him

working on something

I dare not disturb

but watch silently

Suddenly He stands

clenching His chest

and he moans

with overwhelming pain

I run forward

to His side

and He holds me

away from Him

I look at Him

and embedded

in His chest

a tiny cross

I kneel down

where He had been

and my heart He'd held

bears a tiny cross shaped hole

September 29, 2011

Silence Is Golden...is it really?

     Someone once penned that silence is golden. That person must have been at some point in their life, a daycare worker or teacher of 14 screaming 2 year olds. They probably worked at a 10 hours a day, four days a week daycare. :)
     But I wonder if that person ever sat on the side of silence that is not so golden. I wonder if that person ever sat on the scary, lonely side of silence? I wonder if that person ever sat in a half empty house after a divorce?  Or sat in a foster care center after losing both parents? I wonder if they ever turned on the TV to nothing in particular, just to drown out that so called golden silence. Or if they may have looked up at the clock and realized that only an hour had passed and they actually had a whole 3 hours more of that blessed silence. If they had, I wonder if they would have still written about how silence is golden?
       Yet in that silence I hear a whisper that is only audible when it is quiet. Make any noise or sound and you will miss it. Life's calamities usually drown it out. There are days that I hate the silence but with silence comes healing. Silence brings moments to move through hardships. Silence brings moments of reflection. Silence allows you to find the inner strength to leave the TV off and work through the hurt. Silence gives you time to read, play piano, draw, color, write, sing, and hear the thunder. Silence brings that whisper, that peace filled whisper of I AM here and I will not leave you. So yes, silence can be golden.

                        ...in quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15b

Patience Redefined

     For the last two years, now going on three, the answer to my prayers for God to show me His will has been a constant just wait sweet daughter. Do you know how frustrating it has been to hear that over and over and over? And yet in the recent days it has been easier to pray for patience and learn to wait. I have come to realize that they go hand in hand. Waiting on God (His timing, His plan, His purpose) means that you are being taught patience. I hadn't really ever thought about it that way.
     In the past several days His guidance couldn't be anymore clearer. I received a card that read 'Despair walks away...thinking God doesn't care. Faith waits - knowing that in God's perfect time He will speak. I have been reading a Psalm a day and so the last verse of today's reading. Psalm 27:14 is the same verse at the bottom of that card. Its God's little reminder to me that He loves me and He is well aware that patience IS NOT a strong point of mine. But He knows that I am making an effort to wait. Reading that verse tonight felt like God had picked me up once again, set me in His lap, put His arms around me and whispered, I know you are trying and I love you.

Psalm 27:14 - Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait I say, on the Lord.

I in no way think of God as Santa it's the only picture I have of me in a lap.... :)

Simple Sermon

    He didn't have to catch my attention with any gimmicks or entertainment factors, just a simple statement. "We are all road builders." I waited for him to say more to tell me why this was the specific subject of his sermon. Pen in hand, I began to write down what he said. Simple illustrations broadened my view of what I thought he might mean by that simple statement. And now two days later I still am pondering the sermon's lesson. I had heard before that we are all on a journey, on a path. Yet, I had never heard that we are all road builders. He asked simply, "What kind of road builder are you? What kind of path are you living behind you? Is it one fit for a King? Smooth and clean? People are always watching what we are doing, we will always have followers. So are you leaving behind an easy to follow road or is your full of danger zones and detours." These are the questions my heart ponders tonight as I attempt to drift off to sleep.