The Voice From the Garden

Listening for the voice of God is like falling in love.  Those who go looking for love do not find it.  Love is one of those things which comes to us.  So, it is with listening for the voice of the Lord.  If hearing it becomes something we seek to the point of being obsessed with the seeking, we are not likely to hear the voice our soul longs to hear.  The Voice that speaks will come to us and it will be heard.  Perhaps, it will not be heard with the ears of birth, but it will be heard like the wind which is first heard in the distance before it sweeps over us.   

Somewhere as a gift wrapped in holy mystery, the voice of the Lord will resonate with the light of life within us.  As a child knows the sound of its mother's voice so will there be within us a deep awareness that the stirring within our spirit has been heard before as life was poured into our unshaped frame within the darkness of a silent womb.  When God speaks to us in the present moment, we will know it is the Voice first heard and the Light first seen.  What is etched into the essence of our being at conception can never be wiped away.   

Augustine of Hippo wrote what has not been forgotten, "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord,and our heart is restless until it finds it rest in Thee."  Even as these ancient words still ring true, is it not also true that we are first of all Garden dwellers?   In the Garden of Genesis we read about the Lord God walking in the Garden at the time of evening breeze to share in conversation with those who inhabited it.  Conversation is about speaking and listening.  God still comes to speak.  We have lost our ability to hear, but still our soul longs for the Voice first heard in the beginning.