Noise by Becky Gossett

 A few days ago, I was sitting at our Second Friends desk, alone in our workroom, listening to the quiet and wishing for noise. Not just any noise, because I could have sung to myself or turned on Pandora for some noise. But I wanted the noise I love most… Children singing, laughing, sharing LOOONG stories, and teachers chatting happily and laughing about their fun classrooms. THAT is the noise I longed for then, and even right now!  I’m not sure I fully appreciated the noise until I only had this silence.

I imagine there are things everyone wishes for from a month ago, that we don’t have today. By now I’ve learned that life is different; it includes some wonderful opportunities for growth and overcoming challenges—but I still wish for some old familiar “noise.” 

In his daily meditation email today, April 13, 2020, Richard Rohr referenced the Exodus passage where Moses asked God to “Show me your glory” (33:18) and God obliged in an unusual way. (Read that for fun.)  If I ask God to show me God’s glory, might God point to the silence I’m experiencing, or the solitude, or the new-found downtime? Can I find God’s glory here? 

When this isolating time ends (and it WILL someday) I surely will look back and hear what I can’t hear clearly today. I hope to hear how God used this time to change our world for the better—to change me for the better. At this moment, I might be a little deaf to the “noise” God intends for me to hear but I expect I’ll find a glorious melody in it if I open myself to God's glory. Soon.