Yesterday I had the opportunity to take a long walk home after dropping my car off for service. I deliberately took the scenic route in the hope that I could “see the unseeable” in relation to Creative Stretch #1.
Many things captured my attention: squirrels furiously scavenging; the angled sunlight illuminating five-foot spiders’ webs; the lovely bubbling of a fountain. All fed my aching soul as I nibbled slowly on sights ready for the consuming.
None of these, however, seemed to provide an avenue for “[drawing] the ineffable into the realm of experienced reality,” as Luci Shaw said it in Breath for the Bones. These were glorious things, but I needed another layer to be peeled back; I knew something more was waiting.
I continued my walk along a peaceful trail, gazing up at the trees. The rustle of wind rushed through and branches swayed, leaves fluttered. I saw the trees as both sentries and spectators, guarding and observing. The wind stirs them awake at their posts. They shake their limbs at me in encouragement to press on; they will continue the watch long after I pass by. And the wind will keep them alert and at the ready.
That’s when I began to see the unseen in the swaying branches. The wind is unseen, but I can see that it exists by the sway it has upon the trees. So it is with God. He is unseen, but I can see that He exists by the sway He has upon all things.
Science may have much to say about the wind and its workings, but that does not remove the mystery of it. Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going” (John 3:8). The origins of wind rest with God alone.
In the same way, science may have much to say about the impossibilities of God and His workings, but that does not remove the mystery, for we still have evidence of something grand.
After clearing the way with wild tornado winds and an earthquake and a fire, God met Elijah in the gentle blowing (1 Kings 19:11–13). The evidence of God moves in the same way, even today, for those of us willing to look for Him in the seeable unseen.
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