A Broken Limb

It was an afternoon like a thousand other afternoons here on the farm.  Always there is some work to do and that particular day was no exception.  I was out cleaning up some under the pecan trees when I stopped pulling the weeds around the tree for a minute to pick up a broken limb that had fallen from the tree.  As I knelt there on my knees with the limb in hand, I heard for what must have been the first time on the farm the Voice of the Creator.  "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return."    

I sensed that Word stirring within me and it was nowhere near Ash Wednesday!  It was as if the limb itself had spoken, but of course, such was not the case.  It was the Voice of the Holy One speaking through the broken and about to rot and disappear in the ground limb.  On a nice sunny afternoon with nothing really on my mind, this Word came in such an unexpected and surprising way that I knew it was a Word put into my heart by the God whose Voice I had heard many times through the church and the Written Word.   

It was the first of many such moments which have come to pass over the years of paying attention midst the creation.  It was not just the Word which came that day.  What also came was the expectation that there would be other Words.  It was an expectation which I have realized more times than I can count.  As the poet wrote, "Every common bush afire with God..."  It is true.  God speaks through the Written Word and through the Creation so full of the holy.