I once saw a quote -- maybe it was on a
bumper sticker -- that went something like this: “If you feel distant from God,
just ask yourself, ‘Who moved?’” If God seems hidden to us, maybe it is because
we have stopped looking for God in the midst of our daily lives. In the
Scriptures, heaven is not a far away place “way beyond the blue” as the old
song says; but rather it is God’s realm, God’s dwelling, and it is quite near
to us. All we need to do is put down the mirror and open a window in the
relationship God wants to share with us. Rather than a booming shout from the
clouds, God more often is revealed in the “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12
KJV). We can hear if we are focused enough to listen.
Advent reminds us, too, that if we want
to see the face of the hidden God, we do not do so by looking up for a heavenly
sound or light spectacular. Rather, we find it by looking into the dark
recesses of a stable and into the eyes of a humble, helpless child.
-- Robert Kaylor in Come to the Manger
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