The Many Thoughts of Wanda Kidd

Psalm 46:9-12 

Attention, all! See the marvels of God!

    He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,

Bans war from pole to pole,

    breaks all the weapons across his knee.

“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,

    loving look at me, your High God,

    above politics, above everything.”

11     Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,

    God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.

There was indeed a difference between the sounds of the desert and the sounds of my life back home.  Part of it was because I was paying attention and hoping to  hear things that were out of the norm.  In addition, there were new sounds that were peculiar to the experience which simply demanded to be heard.

There was an absence of traffic sounds on a back road, just the sound of my tires..

The clanging of a windmill on the abandoned Sam Nail Ranch in South Texas.

Rocks and gravel crunching as I walked on a path.

The ceaseless wind through the grass.

The sound of birds as they soared against the sky.

The total absence of sound, 750 feet below the surface in Carlsbad Caverns.

And then there was the day I stopped outside of Tuscan at a campground nestled under the Catalina Mountains.  I was a little concerned about ground holes all over the campsite. However, there seemed to be too many for snakes, so I went ahead and set up camp, took a walk, and went to bed.  At 5:30 the next morning I was awakened to a persistent chorus of little chirping and clicking noises all around and under the camper. As I tried to figure out what was creating the sound, a woodpecker began an intense syncopated tapping on a tree directly outside of my sleeping loft. I soon discovered I had parked on top of a prairie dog village.  The woodpecker and prairie dog were not impressed with my presence and in fact, seemed to be in competition to prove the point.  They were natives and I was the intruder. Since I had absolutely no control over their natural behavior, I decided to lay back down and appreciate their morning activities. The result was that I was able to supplant my frustration with an appreciative ear. it was good for my soul.

Without a journey to the desert, I would never have known what a village of prairie dogs sounded like. 

I am glad I chose not to wear headphones when I went for walks. If I had, I would have missed some of the unique sounds that could only be heard in the desert. The beauty of the experience was that in the sounds of the desert, I heard the voice of God. The sounds and lack of sounds, refreshed  me, inspired me, and infused a grandness into my life that was both personal and profoundly relational with the Creator of the Universe. “Be still and know that I am God.” I think I will.

Prayer:

God of quiet and the mundane. Please help us to hear with our hearts all of the mysteries that surround us.  Compel us to quiet our minds and our space, so that we can fall in love with your world in personal, sometimes timid, yet profound ways. Amen… Amen.