After weeks and weeks of trudging through the heat, tonight I walked in the wind. The change of weather thrilled me, and I pulled my headphones out and listened to the wild, awesome sound of leaves being thrown about in trees. The whoosh of air swirling around me, pressing my body with its force, calling out to my soul with its fierceness.
Wind is a strange thing. You can’t see it. You can feel it, you can hear it, you can harness it for power. But it is completely invisible.
Suddenly I think of people I know who seem to be in invisible places. Miscarriages that have left scars no one can see, often that no one knows about. Job disappointments that push the pride to places of feeling so unseen that every day is another step away from success. Relationships that can never be reconciled because the chasm between the living and the dead cannot be crossed to say, “I love you.” or “I’m sorry.” Hope in a heart that awaits a tangible answer to the question, “Am I enough?”
What do we do with the invisible? You cannot lasso the wind with your will. Why can’t we forget the invisible when it is painful? Why do the hopes and dreams that no one can see seem so vitally important to us? This power that whooshes through our souls when we face these unseen foes and friends- where does it come from?
Our God is invisible. When something in our lives is invisible that does not mean it is purposeless or powerless. Holy, mighty invisible power rests in invisible hands. Invisible is God’s home turf. From nothing he made the world. When I feel unseen or my grief pushes me into hidden places, He sees me and I am not forgotten. When my dreams leave me with nothing, He can turn nothing into something.
And so I look up to the God I can’t see and I say prayers I can’t see and I hope and I cry out and the invisible sorrow calls to Him, “You are my God! And I will ever praise You!”
My praise whooshes through heaven and swirls around God, it presses on His invisible greatness with its force and I call out to Him fiercely. Invisible things grow in my heart as I praise Him. His love and mercy stir me to humility. His peace and assurance of things hoped for calm my fears and I know Him more deeply. His all-sufficiency overwhelms my inadequacies.
Then I learn again that the unseen is more valuable and more powerful than anything I can see. Once again I will know that to spend my life in His service, no matter if it is suffering failure or celebrating victory, is the greatest joy I will ever know.
I walk on with the wind, listening and marveling, stirred with joy and embracing the invisible.
