The sound of God

Our story of Elijah (1Kings 19) shows God coming in a “light, silent sound.” These words from my New American Bible (the translation of my childhood) seem to contradict themselves. Yes and no. This is what happens when we try to use our limiting words for Someone who is without limit. What these words do convey, however, is a gentleness, an apt way to describe God’s presence.

But this was not language I wanted to hear in my early adulthood when I began facing how hurt I was. I wanted God to pounce, to attack! I wanted God to be loud so my perpetrators would cower in fear.

I looked for God to act in this way, and when God didn’t, I concluded God wasn’t showing up. God didn’t care. God was no match for the loud evil of the world I’d grown up in. God hadn’t shown up then, and God wasn’t showing up now.

And then I read the story of Elijah in the cave, that “light, silent sound.” Oh, my God, I knew! Of course, I knew! I had heard that, all throughout my childhood! As I read those words, I collapsed in tears as they penetrated my heart and opened my eyes to where God had been all the time! God was there! God had always been there. And this was the truth that impacted me: God’s “light, silent sound” is so powerful, it persists above, below, and through the loud, the violent, and the ugly.

Reflection

In what ways did you “hear” the “light, silent sound” of God during your childhood? And now?

Prayer

Dear God, in so many ways You penetrated my suffering. Your presence protected me, even as the violence raged. Open my eyes to see and my ears to hear. You led me out. Amen.