Divine Shimmers: The Wind from God
Illustration
Stories
When God began to create the heavens and the earth, earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1)
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. (Psalm 8:1)
Divine shimmers, what is called the “wind of God in the first creation story in Genesis, and what the psalmist describes as God’s “glory,” is apparent everywhere in creation. Observant souls will see it, feel it, taste it, and sometimes be transformed by it, though it is mostly beyond the human ken not sure about this phrase? and inexpressible in human terms.
In his book, Carpe Diem, Tony Campolo tells about a Franciscan monk he met at conference where he was to be the featured speaker. The monk was there to lead meditation and worship, some of which was to occur outside on the grassy hills and in the woods surrounding the conference center. Tony was trying get into the meditating, but nothing was happening for him. So, one day he took the monk aside and told him about his frustration. He received quite a surprising response. His Franciscan friend told him he “…did not know how to experience nature as a sacrament.” He said when you are trying to meditate in a natural setting, “…listen to God. Ask him to speak to you through his creation… Look closely at something long enough, and you will find that it begins to look back at you. That night Tony went outside, found a place to meditate and followed the monk’s instructions. He fell fast asleep and awoke to a glorious sight:
“…everything around me was ablaze with God… I felt myself bombarded by the Holy Spirit. Holiness was coming from under and over and around everything… the glory of the Lord was burning in the bushes around me… I was already raptured, and I was already tasting the world that is to come.”
Clayton Daughenbaugh, a field organizer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told me about an unexplainable knowing that came to him while hiking one day: “My wife and I were day hiking at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas. We had completed a climb to the top of Guadalupe Peak and were on the way down. I was walking a hundred yards or so ahead of her and was coming into a small ponderosa grove in what is otherwise a pretty wide-open Chihuahuan desert environment. I noticed the shade and the birds singing right away. As I walked further into it a very strange feeling came over me. It was as though I was a permanent part of that place. But there was also a feeling of imminence – as though I was on the edge or verge of an infinite place and time… I was at once a small and seemingly insignificant part of the universe yet somehow also an essential part of it all. There was a presence of being that seemed to uphold and permeate all that was around me. This lasted maybe ten minutes. I found it to be a very strange experience. Yet it didn’t seem all together unfamiliar, as though I’d experienced it before….”
Eddie Ensley, author of many inspirational books about the mystery of God’s presence, tells how his Cherokee grandfather taught him to look for this “presence of being” in nature:
“I have a vivid memory of my grandfather standing motionless on the top of the bluff, letting his eyes soak in all that came to him. Once I asked him what he saw when he looked. I still hear his answer, rhythmic with Cherokee and Appalachian intonations” ‘I see the dirt, the trees, the water, the skies.’ ‘Why?’ I asked him. ‘Why do you look so long?’ He paused, took his pipe out of his mouth, swallowed, then slowly said, ‘If you look a long time, it will all shimmer, and you will see the glory.’”
Every living creature and every tree and bush in creation is surrounded by energy fields. I see the shimmer and behold the glory often in the stream and trees as I walk through marshland near our home. The energy is thick, almost palpable, especially in the spring and summer. It is invigorating and empowering. I see it around the blue heron as he lifts himself from the pond with a flutter of wings and sails off into the blue. And I hear it in the eerie howls of our local pack of coyotes as they sing to the moon on warm summer nights.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 4, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. (Psalm 8:1)
Divine shimmers, what is called the “wind of God in the first creation story in Genesis, and what the psalmist describes as God’s “glory,” is apparent everywhere in creation. Observant souls will see it, feel it, taste it, and sometimes be transformed by it, though it is mostly beyond the human ken not sure about this phrase? and inexpressible in human terms.
In his book, Carpe Diem, Tony Campolo tells about a Franciscan monk he met at conference where he was to be the featured speaker. The monk was there to lead meditation and worship, some of which was to occur outside on the grassy hills and in the woods surrounding the conference center. Tony was trying get into the meditating, but nothing was happening for him. So, one day he took the monk aside and told him about his frustration. He received quite a surprising response. His Franciscan friend told him he “…did not know how to experience nature as a sacrament.” He said when you are trying to meditate in a natural setting, “…listen to God. Ask him to speak to you through his creation… Look closely at something long enough, and you will find that it begins to look back at you. That night Tony went outside, found a place to meditate and followed the monk’s instructions. He fell fast asleep and awoke to a glorious sight:
“…everything around me was ablaze with God… I felt myself bombarded by the Holy Spirit. Holiness was coming from under and over and around everything… the glory of the Lord was burning in the bushes around me… I was already raptured, and I was already tasting the world that is to come.”
Clayton Daughenbaugh, a field organizer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told me about an unexplainable knowing that came to him while hiking one day: “My wife and I were day hiking at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas. We had completed a climb to the top of Guadalupe Peak and were on the way down. I was walking a hundred yards or so ahead of her and was coming into a small ponderosa grove in what is otherwise a pretty wide-open Chihuahuan desert environment. I noticed the shade and the birds singing right away. As I walked further into it a very strange feeling came over me. It was as though I was a permanent part of that place. But there was also a feeling of imminence – as though I was on the edge or verge of an infinite place and time… I was at once a small and seemingly insignificant part of the universe yet somehow also an essential part of it all. There was a presence of being that seemed to uphold and permeate all that was around me. This lasted maybe ten minutes. I found it to be a very strange experience. Yet it didn’t seem all together unfamiliar, as though I’d experienced it before….”
Eddie Ensley, author of many inspirational books about the mystery of God’s presence, tells how his Cherokee grandfather taught him to look for this “presence of being” in nature:
“I have a vivid memory of my grandfather standing motionless on the top of the bluff, letting his eyes soak in all that came to him. Once I asked him what he saw when he looked. I still hear his answer, rhythmic with Cherokee and Appalachian intonations” ‘I see the dirt, the trees, the water, the skies.’ ‘Why?’ I asked him. ‘Why do you look so long?’ He paused, took his pipe out of his mouth, swallowed, then slowly said, ‘If you look a long time, it will all shimmer, and you will see the glory.’”
Every living creature and every tree and bush in creation is surrounded by energy fields. I see the shimmer and behold the glory often in the stream and trees as I walk through marshland near our home. The energy is thick, almost palpable, especially in the spring and summer. It is invigorating and empowering. I see it around the blue heron as he lifts himself from the pond with a flutter of wings and sails off into the blue. And I hear it in the eerie howls of our local pack of coyotes as they sing to the moon on warm summer nights.
*****************************************
StoryShare, June 4, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
