The Silence Of God

 Snow falls freshly in powered drifts, slowly piling up in fluffy whiteness, and I watch the flakes come gently gliding down. I think of how, for many months, we all waited and prayed for and hoped on the world to change and all of us to re-discover life and love and togetherness once again. And how, at times, it's felt like God wasn't listening. Wasn't moving. Wasn't speaking. 

Even with the eyes of faith, it's been difficult in moments to find Him, see Him, feel Him. Because all it's felt like was...silence. 

Where are You, Lord? 

Do you not know? 

Do you not care?

And as I gaze out my window at what He considers a promise-picture of His sin-washing, redeeming love, I struggle to make sense of this broken world and everything in it. It's been a hard haul for all of us. We are tired. Worn. Beaten up. Weary. And still, belief tells me I should trust God... 

Mind wanders back to Old Testament times when, for 400 years prior to His birth, God did not speak at all. Up until then, He'd sent prophets and signs to remind people that He still saw them, knew them, cared for them. But then? It all went quiet for four centuries. They must've thought God had abandoned them. Left them. Ignored them. After all, generations were born and died without ever hearing a word from God. I'm sure they wondered if this promised Messiah would ever show up. Some may have given up on the promise altogether and concluded God was a liar. 

And haven't we all done the same from time to time? Decided to cease believing, cease hoping simply because of the silence? Because of the supposed delay? 

Yet, what is the reality that, in the fullness of His timing, came true? 

God. Showed. Up. 

Granted, He didn't come as they expected. Neither did He come when they expected. But He still came! 

He broke the silence. Just like He said He would. 

400 years ended in a night of angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest!" Think about it! The waiting was finally rewarded with a proclamation of "Peace on earth!" God followed through as He always does. 

And perhaps, you're sitting here and feeling like I am...that things have been silent for awhile. Fighting off the doubts that God is really in touch with what is going on in your life and mine. Asking all the questions and facing all the fears and wondering if the ageless truth that things will get better really applies here in this moment. 

Let us return, in our minds, to Bethlehem, friend. For there, in a humble stable, God proved that all our concerns and all our false conclusions are just that: untrue. That indeed, He will make good on all He's said He'll do...just maybe not in the way or the time you think. The birth of His Son showed that the silence was only a set-up. 

I don't know how your breakthrough or mine will come...or even when they'll come. But I know that they will. Because, if the Savior was willing to go to the lengths He did to prove His love for humanity, then there is no way that a better tomorrow isn't on the way. That help isn't on the way. That hope isn't on the way. 

For God is always on the way. Of that, we can be sure.