January 2004

UNSEEN MOVEMENTS

I woke this morning and looked out the window to see fresh snow that had fallen silently in the night.  As I enjoyed the glistening crystals and the silence that had fallen with them, I also noticed that there had been a lot of activity during the night.  A racoon had been on the patio and walked back to the small patch of woods on the corner of the property.  Deer had moved through the yard.  Looking out my study window, on the other side of the house, I saw that a dog wandered around a couple of trees and come next to the house.  It was as if I could still see them walking, although they were no longer in their tracks.  All that activity and I was oblivious to it all.  My wife is a very light sleeper and she didn’t even notice anything. 

It occurred to me that there may have been other movements about which I was unaware.  What about angels watching over us as we slept?  What was God doing while I was asleep?  Was he whispering in my ear as I dreamed?  Was he planting thoughts and ideas in my head which he would bring to the front of my mind at a later time?  Was he moving in the hearts of people for whom I have been praying such a long time? 

I remember the story of Jacob as he slept.  God spoke to him during the night in a dream.  He awakened to a world that seemed less real than the world he had seen in his dream.  He looked around him and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16).  He named that place Bethel, “House of God.” 

The whole world is the house of God and I am often unaware of it.  Both waking and sleeping I often go about the ordinary, mundane tasks of my life as though God had wandered off somewhere else.  I want to live this next year with a greater God-consciousness.  I want to be conscious that he is often moving silently and wonderfully, even though I am too dull to see him.  He is on the move even when I am asleep.  It’s often only afterwards that I see the footprints where he has been. 

But it is often the unseen that is more powerful than what is seen.  Psalm 121 tells us that the one who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps.  He is walking all around you even you are unaware of his presence. 

Watching for the unseen,

Rod