Praying in the Stillness

On my way back to the house from shutting up the chickens for the night, I suddenly became aware of stillness.  I was the only part of the creation moving.  Everything else was still.  Absolutely still.  I was walking, moving in sheer stillness.  A stillness had settled down hard upon the earth and I was out there in the midst of it.  And so I stopped.  I, too, became still.  As the still trees seemed to be doing, I watched and waited for whatever might be coming in the stillness of those final moments before the last colors of the evening disappeared.

 

As a captive in chains, I stood there bound by the stillness of the evening.  Finally, there was high above me in the top branches of the towering pecan tree a gentle movement.  I watched as the gentle movement of the wind began to touch all that was stilled around me.  Finally, what had stirred the top of the tree touched me as I stood there on the ground transfixed by what was moving around me.  What came in the fading light of the sun came lastly to me, but only because I had chosen to become a part of the stillness of the creation.

 

"O God, bless me with a heart that waits in the stillness!  Bless me with a spirit that has learned to sense the coming of the holy wind.  Bless me with the touch  of  the gentle wind of the Spirit as it moves above me, around me, and through me.  Father God, loving Son, and Holy Spirit hear my longing for the blessing of a stilled life that waits and watches.  Bless not just me, Father, but all who yearn for such stillness in their lives.  Come now as we wait in the stillness.  Amen."