A Whisper of His Presence

One day you're just looking at the light playing on the grass or the leaves of the trees fluttering in the breeze, and you hear God whisper His Presence to you.  When I was young (elementary school age) I remember drawing my finger through the dusting of snow on a low wall by the school, as I walked to early church.  There wasn't another soul about.  I loved the early service in the little chapel beneath the main sanctuary, its altar area hewn from stone which, when cut, had revealed fingers of iridescent color within it. There was a peace and a sense of holiness there...and the palpable presence of God.  At that time, I hadn't what I would now call a personal relationship with Him; yet, I was very aware of His reality and believed in His goodness.  I truly did sense His goodness, not just an impersonal force.
   I felt Him there, arms wide open to me.  Later, however, I wandered from those arms into the intellectual snobbery and arrogance of the college culture. Obtaining the success and relationship which I had been sure would satisfy, I remember feeling a great emptiness and crying out for something more. As it turned out, it wasn’t something, it was Some One. The One Who had whispered to me from the very beginning.
   Now, after over 40 years in His tender care, I’ve never looked back, never even wanted to. It would be like choosing to go back into a dark closet after being in an open field with the sunlight streaming over me and a gentle breeze caressing my face.  Like going back into a dark cloud cloaked in the appearance of light.
   I’ll never stop being grateful to Him,  not only for opening the door and freeing me from my own lost self, but also for showing me the illusory nature of satisfaction in my own self-enthronement.
His peace is deep in my bones, His Person and ministry both that of father and mother to me, His Shepherd nature a balm to my soul.