Craig Lindquist I took a walk tonight in the soft silence of a Hawaiian evening as I often do. The stars shone quietly as they kept up their eternal vigil. The light they shed came ever so softly, illuminating the
Craig Lindquist
I took a walk tonight in the soft silence of a Hawaiian evening as I often do. The stars shone quietly as they kept up their eternal vigil. The light they shed came ever so softly, illuminating the swaying tops of the palms and bathing the entire landscape in a beautiful, silvery glow. The night air was peaceful and still as it beckoned my own soul to be likewise.
Such a simple, ordinary, yet wondrous walk this was, free of the clatter and clamor of all that shouts our names each day. It has been enjoyed by thousands of others as well, as they too have drunk deeply from the well of creation’s masterpiece. Our earth is full of such wondrous moments that have been created by a loving God to bless the lives of his children. We need but learn to see them, and then in seeing them learn to be grateful for he who created them.
“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the wonders of his heav’n.” So penned Phillips Brooks in his inspired hymn, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.
While the cunning adversary of men’s souls spreads his dragon’s teeth wherever he may, the Creator of all that which is good and uplifting, even Jesus Christ, silently, silently, sends forth his gifts to each of us. They come without fanfare or tumultuous noises. No bells clang in the night sky to pull our eyes heavenward to those gentle stars. No alarms blare out to show us the majestic mountains that men have always sought out for solace. No angels in flaming chariots of fire burn through the midday sky to draw our hearts and minds to those sacred scriptures that bear testimony of Jesus Christ, his eternal Father, or of all that he has created for us.
These gifts from our Father in Heaven, and countless others, have come to us as silently, yet as surely as the sun moves along its decreed course.
Without a scintilla of those feelings of animosity that permeates the hearts of most men, Jesus Christ “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
And not just rain is sent, but gifts of every imaginable persuasion. Gifts that uplift through music and art; gifts that inspire through science and mathematics; gifts of the Earth that bring nourishment to tired bodies as well as weary souls. And the incredible gift of the Holy Ghost and the Son of God himself! Yet they come as quietly as does the bathing light of the late evening stars. They come because we are loved by that God who gave us life. A gentle, kind and loving Father whose greatest desire is the happiness of his children. As the psalmist so movingly wrote, “for God is for me.”
A simple truth. A divine truth. A truth indeed.
• Craig Lindquist is a regular contributor to The Garden Island.
