Let the Light Shine in

               My favorite feature of our new home is our master bath window.  A lovely stained glass pane (formerly in the Tudor-styled Henry the VIII Hotel in St. Louis) fits almost perfectly in the 40”x20” spot.  Each day as I raise the mini-blinds, light comes pouring through the red, blue, green, yellow and clear diamonds of glass.  I savor the simple beauty.

               Around 2000, people could buy a window for $50.00 during the razing of this landmark hotel.  On a cold December day, my husband actually used a screwdriver and wrench to extract one for us.  We put it in a section of a front window then, but at our last house, it just leaned against a wall for 11 years, no light coming through, no beauty to be seen.

               After breakfast, I usually  read several daily devotional books and pray.  With limited physical abilities, I’m not bounding out the door each morning—or any other time of day!  A real need and desire to hear from God motivate me more to keep this practice, especially in times of difficulty and trial.  In the last two weeks, three different devotionals have addressed the importance of making time to hear God’s “still, small voice” as followers of Christ.

               On July 6^th, in Penned from the Heart, the title said, “Straining for the Still, Small Voice,” then quoted 1 Kings 19:12,13 about the Lord not being in the wind, earthquake or fire.  Instead, His direction came to Elijah through a “still, small voice.”  The author’s reasoning?  “Perhaps because a whisper requires participation, a stretching of the ears.”  I would add hearing also requires taking time apart from doing other things however good they may be.

               A new devotional, Prayers for Every Day, quoted this same verse but with a different and catchy wording on July 17^th.  “The Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a sound of sheer silence . . . Then there came a voice to him.”  The words of an old, familiar hymn followed, beginning with “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind forgive our foolish ways . . . Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire, O still small voice of calm."   

               Honestly, on July 20^th, a third devotional, the Upper Room, was titled, “Hear His Voice.”  Jesus’s words followed:  “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).  After a story about the transforming power a leader’s words can bring in a crisis, the author compared that to a believer’s opportunity to hear Christ’s words of wisdom, guidance and calm.  “Listening to Christ’s voice through the Spirit or the words of scripture” should be a vital and regular part of our Christian life.

               God is still “speaking” and the written, inspired words of God are readily available for instruction, correction and counsel.  Will we let God’s words, quietly spoken to our hearts or written in the scriptures be like the lovely window laying against a wall?  Or, will we set apart time to allow the light of the Holy Spirit to shine and enliven these words our living Lord means for us, while still, to truly “hear.”