Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote,
Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.
It’s one thing to see with our eyes. Some of what we see also stirs our emotions causing us to feel profoundly. Deeper still, the things of God speak to a place within us that only God knows … we call that our soul.
When we come together on Tuesday mornings, we open God’s Word to understand the things of God. Who is HE? …
- what did He say?
- how did He act?
- what brings Him joy or sadness?
- how does He love us?
- and how can we love Him back?
The answers are in God’s Word, but we need to read and absorb it ourselves.
Isaiah 55:10-11 reminds us,
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
When we know God’s Word, continue to discover what He is like, learn the good news of Jesus and respond to His love for us – our thirsty souls are watered. Truth sinks down into our lives. We grow in faith.
Once we see Him, our hearts are stirred, and God can speak deeply into our souls.
In his book, “Windows of the Soul,” Ken Gire encourages us to catch glimpses of God all around us.
“We reach for God in many ways. Through our sculptures and our scriptures. Through our pictures and our prayers. Through our writing and our worship. And through them He reaches for us.
These are windows of the soul.
In a sense, it is something like spiritual discipline for the spiritually undisciplined. In another sense, it is the most rigorous of disciplines – the discipline of awareness. For we must always be looking and listening if we are to see the windows and hear what is being spoken to us through them.”’
A spiritual discipline for the undisciplined … that’s for me!
I hope it’s for you as well. In the coming weeks you’ll hear from women in our group about how God speaks to them through a window of their soul. I’m looking forward to that! I also hope it stirs your heart to notice a window where God may be revealing something to you.
Pause and reflect with us on this video:
A video like that reminds me of all the ways earth is crammed with heaven.
Where did you see heaven in that video?
- The rhythm of the seas and the rolling clouds?
- Perhaps the creativity and skill that goes into building skyscrapers and cities?
- Did you see heaven in the many people walking along the Great Wall of China?
- Was the echo of heaven in the mountain streams?
- How about the background music or the video itself?
All of those places, yes? But I imagine ONE of those places was a burning bush of God’s presence to you … that’s where God speaks most deeply to you. That’s the window of your soul.
Equip Her 