Of whispers and thunder

The Old Testament and Psalms and prophets are full of what sounds like the booming voice of the Lord. Mountains tremble, waters roars, the ground shakes and swells. His voice booms over the waters. Yes, there is an impressive tone to many of the Psalms- a raging God, a humbled man. I actually love them. But sometimes we start to think He only will come with a mighty, thundering fist. I think He could and can and has and probably will again. Yet.

Then I think to when He did come, in a stable, quietly, as a baby. How he slipped in, like a whisper. When most people weren’t watching, while the whole world was looking the other way, and hardly anybody noticed that everything important had suddenly changed.

Sure- of course- Mary knew enough as she labored, and Joseph knew as he wiped her brow and tried not to worry himself. The shepherded knew when the angel came, bringing good news. (They and their sheep were subsequently treated to a feast for the senses, with more angels filling the sky and signing glory to God. )

But did anyone else know? Did they hear the thunder of change as God came down to earth, as Love was born a man? Who knew it? Who could know it? He came in less like thunder and more like a whisper.

How often does He come first to us like that, with a whisper?
I think of Mary, for whom God had already come nine months earlier. When no one else was watching, an angel visited her and a royal invitation was extended, To be a part of something grand. Then God came to Joseph in a dream, to let him in on this wild plan. Often the first moments, He is gentle and private, speaking just to you and your heart. When no one else is watching or listening.

How many times has He come and invited us to something?

Have you been invited to come close to Him? You have.
Have you been invited to come and sit with Him, to dine at His table? You have.
Have you been invited to hold onto a promise, to hold some seed of Hope? You have.
Have you been invited to your own destiny, to bring the hope of heaven to earth, His love to bear? You have.

While it was only a whisper, when you do hear it, it thunders in your heart. It moved the mountains that it found there, it swelled and stirred the waters of your very being. Your heart trembled And yet.

While it was only a whisper,
Did you say yes?
Did you believe?

Then, did you ever stop?

Waiting for the promise to come and be seen, it can take a very long time. You wonder if you misheard, if it was really true, what you thought you heard.
Imagine Joseph, having to face the inquiries, having to travel, awaiting a birth of some baby he couldn’t probably understand. Imagine Mary, holding the blooming promise in her belly, and wondering what it even means. Even as she delivers it- delivers Him!- she couldn’t have grasped it all.
Imagine the shepherds, after seeing the angels. Now, having to walk in order to see, having to trek across the dark, rugged hills, on sandaled feet. In the dark, trying find what they were looking for, what those angels were singing about. They might have wondered after the shining light subsided, after the curtain of heaven was pulled back and the miraculous images absorbed back into a dark night sky. They must have.

Because every promise that comes as a whisper must be walked out on the quiet road, in between ears that roar with questions. In a heart that blooms with hopeful anticipation, that beats rapidly in wonder.
Every. Single. One.

Perhaps, maybe, the thundering of when God comes is the hammering of a heart beating wildly in your chest with faith and not yet understanding? Is it the sound of feet walking toward their destiny? Even while they look completely regular, like a normal, humble shepherd stumbling in the dark. Or a carpenter of a husband leading his wife to bring new life? Or the woman about to birth a baby who was a promise to the whole world?

Yes, in part at least it has to be, that the thundering is a heart who has heard. Who now walks, and carries a promise that is connected to His heartbeat. A heart that believes and sees with the eyes of faith, and who believes enough to go, and do something that was asked of them. Something that might seem insignificant, but will lead to something of greater importance than they yet even understand.

Yes, the thundering is our heart beating, our hearts beating with Love. For what we have seen and heard, echoing back to the Father’s heart. The Creator of this world, the Author of our hearts. Who has come, and who is coming, and who, inexplicably, has come up behind us, whispered in our soul’s ears, and invited us to something. Immanuel, God with us, who invited us to come alongside Him, and to be a part of what He’s doing. Who invited us to say yes. Who extended to us an invitation to be a part, humbly and amazedly, with what He’s doing now. Whatever that will look like. The mind can’t yet conceive it. But your heart can. And in that heart it can be brought to bear, born to life.

“Be it into me”, even when we don’t understand.

God, who uses the foolish things to confound the wise, uses our humbled, distracted lives, our limited understanding, our feeble minds and earthly bodies- to carry hope we could never quite fully understand. To carry Truth we can’t fully grasp. To declare what God has done, and what God is yet going to do.

My heart thunders “yes”.
Does yours?
Let that yes be your gift before Him now, oh, wise man.
Let your thundering heart be His.