Monday, March 31, 2014

Savoring the Silence

My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting with a friend of ours yesterday over brunch after church, during which the pastor had shared about the need to savor silence in our lives in order to draw closer to God. He even went so far as to suggest we unplug our televisions and tune into our loved ones, as I have written about lately.

As we visited with our friend, she reminded us that her husband, who is hospitalized with a stroke, was moved to a private room since his former roommate watched nonstop television, a medium not very helpful to the healing process, what with its daily menu of violence and vitriol. But it is not only television that hinders us from hearing the still, small voice of God in the silence. There are many sources of noise, technological and otherwise, that we need to notice and neutralize in our lives.

One simple way to dial out the distractions in daily life is to spend time enjoying nature. Now that spring has sprung in our area, my wife and I are awakening to the budding blooms of nature’s bounty all around us, whether it’s the forsythia, daffodils or pear trees pictured above, creation is coming alive in our corner of the world and we are slowing down to savor it. God created nature for us to enjoy and doing so blesses us even as it blesses the Creator.