Ordinary Time

Pause

Here we are. It's February, and Christmas is not far behind. In one of my favorite songs of that season, we sing, "Do you hear what I hear? A song, a song, high above the trees, with a voice as big as the sea. With a voice as big as the sea.”

Have you ever thought of the sea having a voice?

Do you think of songs you cannot actually hear, but which speak to you?

Are we missing some of the music that might actually sing in our hearts, if we were open to the song?

Let us tune our ears and hearts to the Holy in this moment.

Listen

Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning? Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded?

God inhabits the earth’s horizon—its inhabitants are like locusts—stretches out the skies like a curtain and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling. God makes dignitaries useless and the earth’s judges into nothing.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth when God breathes on them, and they dry up; the windstorm carries them off like straw.

So to whom will you compare me, and who is my equal? says the holy one.

Look up at the sky and consider: Who created these? The one who brings out their attendants one by one, summoning each of them by name.

Because of God’s great strength and mighty power, not one is missing.

Isaiah 40:21-26

Think

Haven’t you heard? God created these and God created me.

Look on the beauty of the earth, the surprises in all the seasons. Welcome the unexpected flower popping through the snow, the greening up of spring in the desert, the warmth of the sun on a day at the beach. It is so easy to not “hear” these silent messages around us every day.

And then there’s the miracle of us, our body parts that work and that are beautiful in their faithfulness every day, unbidden by us. So many things we try to control, and yet some happen well without our effort. Each of us lovingly created and cared for by God.

Haven’t you heard?

Barbara Gray

Pray

Thank you, Lord, for creating me as you created my world. Help me hear you and see you in new places this day. Still my lips; open my mind and heart to your most quiet voice. Amen.

Go

Perhaps, with God’s help, we may choose which voices are stronger in our world. Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you heard the good news of God?

Listen to the trees, the geese flying overhead, the quiet sun slipping behind the hill. So much music in the quietest places in our world.

Go. Open your heart to the music of that silence. Let in the music that many never hear. Choose to listen only for the voices that feed your soul.

And you will be new music to others; and you will hear others in new ways. It’s the good news we all are waiting to hear.