Silence. It can be a beautiful. When days are full and noise is rampant,
silence is something that I cherish.
Last week, I had 2 sick kids who were both napping, a another was at a
friend’s house for the afternoon, and the remaining child was at school. The afternoon, for 3 hours, was completely
silent. I hardly knew what to do with
myself. It was glorious.
Silence. It can be dangerous. That kid.
You know the one. When there is
silence, there is trouble. Someone is
getting a haircut. Something is getting
unscrewed, torn apart, glued or taped. One afternoon, I was folding laundry in my bedroom.
There was silence in the house while my youngest was sleeping and my son
was watching his favorite show. There
comes a moment when things are too quiet. I knew I needed to investigate but I didn’t want to interrupt the beautiful quiet. "Just a few more minutes, and
then I’ll check things out," I thought. Just then,
my son came running into the room crying, like he was in pain and a little
scared. He showed me what he had been
doing. I am still not sure what he was trying to do, but after seeing a battery
and aluminum foil, I figured out what caused the tears. My four year-old had created his own electrical science
experiment. Thankfully, other than learning
a hard lesson, he wasn’t permanently injured.
Silence. It can be frustrating. When you are waiting for an answer and it just won’t come. Many of my
prayers are those of waiting. God, show
me, tell me what to do. Yes or No? Major life
decisions, personal problems, family issues, and challenges with my
children; sometimes clarity comes
quickly, thankfully. Most of the time,
the answers come slowly, if at all.
Today is Good
Friday, Holy Friday. Jesus’ followers watch their best friend get
humiliated and beaten, then put to die on a cross. All they had known for three years, ended on that
day, in silence. The disciples ran
and hid, for fear of their own arrest.
They spent the next couple days, in frustrating, painful silence.
Why does God stay silent when we need to hear from Him? Doesn’t he know the anguish his silence causes? We are a need to know people! We need an immediate response.
I wonder, if during
that silence, Jesus' followers tried to think back over their time with him to remember anything and everything he said to them. Jesus predicted his own death numerous times.
Luke actually records that the two
angels at the tomb reminded the women what Jesus told them, “The Son of Man
must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third
day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7 NIV) It
was in that moment, the women “remembered his words”. They connected the dots and had an AH-HA moment.
He’s up to something.
When the disciples were waiting in silence for 3 days after Jesus’
death, God was up to something. It’s as
if God was saying, “Hold on, dear one, wait and see what I am going to do.”
Are you sitting and waiting in silence? Waiting for God to bring an end to your pain
or a cure for an illness? Are you
waiting on God to bring a loved one home or to piece together a broken
marriage?
In the midst of the silence, God is working things out on
your behalf. It may take a little time,
to change hearts and circumstances, but he is
working.
Hold on, dear one, wait and see what GOD is going to do!
Romans 8:26-28 The Message
Meanwhile, the moment we get
tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we
don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and
for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us
far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us
present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives
of love for God is worked into something good.”
The Waiting by Jamie Grace
