Blog # 22 MORE

Blog #20 MORE I remember reading nore than twenty years ago in a small book of Christian reflections the author's response to seeing a field of corn growing. As she drove along down a rural highway in western Missouri then into Kansas, on either side of the road were vast fields of grain growing. All of a sudden it struck her to reflelct upon what she saw, the complete reality of it, the earth the sun the roots the stalk, the grain. All of it was there before her, so close and clear she could see it from the car, so real she could stop the car and walk over to touch it. As she drove along and refleclted further her experience became more than merely earth water sun root stalk and grain. It was God growing food for His people! Creation, the world around and within us, the world we touch see hear taste amell and live can very well be considered as a message or a letter from God. As a friend might speak to us through a letter in the mail, so God speaks to us through sights and sounds, through every experience whether in joy or sorrow, through creation, through ourselves. Through life and death, through good fortune and bad, and even through our sins God is sending us messages, telling us someting, something of Himself and ourselves, someting of the world, of our friends, of the rich and of the poor. In all of creation God is present, communicating with us, speaking with us, writing us letters as it were. But there is a second step. As with a letter from a friend, the letter itself, folded and sealed in the envelope is very real in that the paper is real and the words are really written, but until we open the letter and read it it is not really a letter to us. Creation is a message from God, but we must read it! The complete experience of receiving a letter implies a response, that we send a lelter in return. So it is with the experience of walking with God in creation. The first step is to open our eyes and minds to the complete reality of what surrounds us and is present within us, more than merely our thoughts,our desires,to drive by the corn fields and see more than earth sky and water, more than roots and stalks and grain. God can be 'seen' there growing food for His peoplle, 'heard' in our inmost being calling us to discover Him, to know Him and to love Him. Some people do not get that far. Their letters remain unopened. The next step in walking wilth God is to respond to the message He sends in creation and within us, to tell God we are happy among His gifts, to thank Him for His love, to tell Him of our sorrow when He points out where we have been in sin, to accept His invitation to come to His home in the world around us and within us, to pray. Noah "walked with God" ( Gen 6: 10). Noah knew God in the world around him. He responded in thanksgiving and love. Noah was a man of prayer, a holy man. We live under the came sun that rose each morning for Noah.