The Sound of God

It's about 4 a.m. My wife and I have been spending two or three days in some friends' place on Lake Superior near Lutsen. Half-awake, and half-asleep, I listen to the Shhhhh...Shhhhh...Shhhh...of gentle waves breaking on the shoreline. For some reason, I turn to my wife and say, "That is the sound of God." Then I return to sleep.

A few hours later, I remember just enough of this dreaming moment to wonder what I meant. I think it comes to this, God's presence is in some ways like "white noise" that we barely notice most of the time. Yet that voice is calming, reassuring, beautiful, continually present and comforting. What some people experience as the absence of God may instead be the quiet sound of divine Presence. We do not recognize God's voice because we do not listen in silence to silence.