Several years ago, Robin and I along with some good friends from New Zealand, took a road trip through the national parks of Arizona and Utah. After returning home, we made a side trip to Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. While meandering this little Alpine village, I purchased a quilted tea cozy of blue and white cotton. Over the years, it served us well; but time and dripping tea pots did their damage and it became an ‘eye sore’. Time to get a new one.
In our March trip to Norway and Denmark last year, I had two purchases in mind: a silver spoon (last month’s blog) and a tea cozy. The first we found, the second we didn’t. But never mind…we’ll just get one in November when we go to London on our way to Spain to lead a spiritual retreat for the Alliance Spain international workers.
And so, November arrived and off to London we flew. The third day in, we got up with one thing in mind: buy a tea cozy. Our boutique hotel was charming and its owner knowledgable…but she had never heard of a tea cozy! However, going on-line, she found a few stores that might have them and off we went with money in hand. Several hours later, we returned…empty-handed.
Spain came and went…and so did Christmas! With the tea cozy still in mind, we did the only thing possible at that point: we looked on line…and found the perfect tea cozy. Off went the transaction; and in less than a week, our tea cozy arrived on our doorstep. It was everything we wanted: attractive, well made, right size.
In our enthusiasm, we missed seeing the card that came with the purchase; but when we did, we couldn’t believe our eyes: “Dot’s Pass Time – Woodinville, WA.” Woodinville!…a bedroom community of Seattle, just down the road from where we live, a place we frequent often because we worship there. We had traveled the world for a tea cozy and here it was…in our own backyard, 25 minutes away!
Sometimes the answers we search for as we journey life are close at hand, within our grasp…we just don’t see them because we’re not looking for them there.
I’m reminded of the waters of Marah in Israel’s journey to the Promised Land, Exodus 15:22-27. You know the story. Three days into their journey, they came to their first water supply, but found the waters bitter! The people grumbled, Moses cried out to God, and God revealed a tree that would make everything different. Thrown into the waters changed the chemical balance and the waters became sweet…drinkable.
Now when you think about it, generations of sojourners had passed by those waters and never drank…because they never saw the tree, which I’m inclined to believe was there all the time. It was only as Moses sought God did he/they find the answer to a desperate need. In one way, the answer was a piece of wood; but God’s say on the matter is more than them finding that piece of wood. He says
“If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes….”verse 26.
Herein is our problem: we find it difficult to hear God! And we perceive that His voice is outside of us, often far away. But God says differently:
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
God says that His voice is as close as my mouth and heart. It is that close because my heart is His dwelling place…and He speaks out from where He dwells. His voice is primarily an internal voice. To hear it requires time, often silence on my part and a heart that longs to hear Him speak. When I hear Him, I will often find that His answer is within my grasp…there all the time. Like that tea cosy, close at hand.
So, the question that confronts me is this: am I looking for answers without? Or within? External answers that don’t necessarily reflect internal alignment with the voice of God? Or internal answers that are reflected in external alignment? Internal and external…in that order.
Hearing God is to hear Him speak within…near at hand all the time!
Marcia
