I have always had a fascination for how God expresses his word and presence through magnificent demonstrations of creation’s majesty, through the awesome forces of nature. In a segment of today’s passage from I Kings 19, we find Elijah sent to Mount Horeb on a divine mission to wait for the word of the Lord. After Elijah experiences three episodes of natural phenomena—wind, earthquake, and fire—he hears the Lord’s voice in “a gentle whisper.”

Even though the written record of God’s word is preserved in canon scripture, I believe God continues to reveal expressions of his presence and his will for us through the marvels of creation that surround us, especially when we take the time from the busy-ness of our lives to observe and listen. I recall a family vacation to the Florida Gulf Coast some years ago, for example, when I sat on the balcony of our condo every night after dark and listened to the pounding waves crashing ashore in the darkened surf beyond. I composed a memoir later to commemorate the power of God’s reassuring word that came in that retreat experience. Here’s an excerpt from the poetic reflection:

I heard God’s word along the sea in noisy surf: Driven waves swelling, rolling, foaming, pounding shoreward, thundered by strident breeze from dusk to dawn, high tide and low, and dusk again, and then throughout the night. Wave upon wave, God declaring in the surf along the sea, unmistakably, “I am.”

I hope we all will listen with sensitivity, in quiet moments, to God’s voice in the world around us, whether it be in the homey tranquility of a soft breeze coursing through the patio on a mild spring morning or the grandeur of rocky, snow-capped peaks towering to Alpine heights on the Colorado skyline. God’s word in creation surrounds us . . . It beckons us . . . It assures us . . . It satisfies us . . . it reminds us that for all that we arenot, Heis!

May we take time this day—and every day—to see and hear God’s intentional message in the glory of created order.

Blessed be the Word of the Lord!