IS GOD SILENT?

Psalm  124:8, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth."  This simple verse has carried a multitude of people from Devestation to Joy. There is no help as mighty as the help of the Lord.  Our job?  To trust Him and obey.


Looking in on Mary and Joseph, we find that on the night of the Betrothal there was little sleeping.
Mary found herself at her window aching for her Joseph and wondering if he, too, was not able to sleep.  And Hannah? She had given in, but secretly she hoped Mary would change her mind before the wedding, and she determined to hold off the wedding as long as she dared! She recognized she loved Mary over-much, and wanted to protect her from the "suffering and shock" involved in the "ways of men."


Joseph had earlier come in and out of Mary's life as much as was possible under Hannah's selfish watch. But now, Joseph worked long hours at his workplace.  The house he was building gained in height above its cave; the cave to keep them safe from earthquakes and a place to stable the donkey.
Joseph and his brothers sang as they worked at the sturdy, but cozy, building.  Mary and her father visited often, and all found they had a good time. With Timna and Jacob, Joseph's mother and father, Mary was at peace,  knowing she was loved without being controlled.  There was no rivalry and the visits were a delight. Mary even loved the  donkey and the sheep which bedded down in the straw.  She loved baking bread with Timna, with the smell of the yeast reminding her that being alive is a miracle, a holy thing.


In Mary's great happiness she  remembered the "singing silence" of God, of whom she rejoiced. His singing silence, she believed, would somehow speak to her at any moment.  "Perhaps God has a blessing for me," she thought, "or an admonition."  Whichever it was, she would gladly hear it!  As a child she had always instinctively felt God's presence.  Perhaps, she thought, as a woman she would not feel His presence so completely anymore.  Aloud, she asked, "Is the pure channel from God to me closed, even now?"


She repeated with a saddened heart the psalm she hoped would help her to once again rejoice.  "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, What is man, that thou art mindful of him?"  She listened but  heard nothing, knew nothing but silence. (End of today's story.)


Have you ever felt God's silence?  I have.  Even with a psalm, a prayer, or a word of praise, I have felt God's silence.  But He is always there.  It is hard to understand God's silences; harder still to believe He is still present.  But rejoice, in spite of our feelings, God is always there!


And you and I, we are still here! together!


Jo INMN