DAY 8
From the devotional book Beyond Words by Frederick Buechner
“THE HOUSE LIGHTS GO OFF and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised the baton.
In the silence of a midwinter dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen.
You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart.
The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.
The Salvation Army Santa Claus clangs his bell. The sidewalks are so crowded you can hardly move. Exhaust fumes are the chief fragrance in the air, and everybody is as bundled up against any sense of what all the fuss is really about as they are bundled up against the windchill factor.
But if you concentrate just for an instant, far off in the deeps of yourself somewhere you can feel the beating of your heart. For all its madness and lostness, not to mention your own, you can hear the world itself holding its breath.”
my reflection When I first looked at this devotional this morning, I was completely baffled. To me it looked like so much word salad. In my defense, I started the day a bit on the sleep-deprived side. I showed the devotional to my wife, and she encouraged me to slow down and read it more slowly. And that’s when it came into focus for me. Buechner offered a set o little vignettes with a common theme running through them. One of the hymns sung at the church I attend has the line “I will be still and know you’re my God.” And that’s the theme of this devotional. Be still. Try to catch the little, almost imperceptable, things around you that you often don’t even give any thought to. I find this very difficult to do. Part of the reason for this, I think, is how my brain is wired. It’s hard, well nigh impossible, for me to tune out extraneous figurative noise. As a result, I often miss little things that turn out to be very important. Perhaps it’s time for me to learn how to be still.
- Our Weekend Getaway - January 22, 2024
- So Long, Mom, And Thanks For All The Spaghetti - November 10, 2023
- Thoughts On The Chogaffirm Petition - June 3, 2023
- Rhonda - June 3, 2023
- Beyond Words Day 23 - April 4, 2023
- Beyond Words Day 21 - April 1, 2023
- State Of The Household - January 9, 2023
- Book Review and Miscellany Thoughts - November 18, 2022
- Initial Thoughts On My Writing - September 13, 2022
- Beyond Words Day 19 - September 11, 2022
