I have  a 5 year old little girl.  She is, in my biased opinion, the cutest thing on the planet!  Often when I am sitting on the couch my daughter will come and sit next to me and quietly wait.  Wait for what?  She will wait for me to put my arm up on the back of the couch, over her shoulders.  This is when she scoots over close and lays her head on my chest, wraps her arms around me and says, ‘I love you Daddy.’  I really love those moments.

Raegan realizes in that moment, the moment I raise my arm, that she is welcome to come closer.  It is the open door she is looking for.  It is her invitation to draw near.  For many of us, we are waiting and longing for that invitation from God, but I think sometimes we are looking in the wrong places.

Margaret, in her book ‘Hungry for God’, uses the story of Elijah coming to a place of depression and exhaustion, and he seeks to find God.  However God is not found, as we see in the story, in the violent wind.  Rather Elijah finds him in the quiet, still voice, calling his name, inviting him close.

I was challenged by this thought, and thankfully so, because many times I miss those small moments that God is calling and inviting me to be with Him, to spend time close to Him.  I can allow myself to get so busy that I don’t pay attention to those small whispers and can end up missing a much needed, and much desired moment.

My prayer is that we learn, as Margaret says, ‘we’d quit waiting for lightning to strike and look for God now.’  May we all learn to hear the soft voice that is calling to us in every moment of life.

“Asking God to speak means we must come to Him on His terms, not our own. Too often we look for God in the windstorms and earthquakes when God has been whispering into our lives all along.”  - Margaret Feinberg, Hungry for God