Sept. 4, 2019 On one of the cooler recent nights, I sat on my enclosed porch. I had neither an e-reader/book in my hands, as I often would on such evenings, nor my phone or laptop. My husband, Adam, peaked out the porch door and saw me staring into the darkness. He stood in the doorway for a few seconds before asking, “what are you doing?” “I’m just sitting here listening to the crickets,” I replied. Normally, if I use the word “crickets,” I’m not talking about the bug. I’m much more likely to use the word in its more modern usage – to signify silence (example: “I asked Jake why he didn’t finish washing the dishes. The response: Crickets. He didn’t say a word”). Yet this was not silence. The chirps were coming from all directions. The sound of what was likely hundreds, maybe thousands of crickets blended into a continuous and ubiquitous song. It was surround-sound chirping. “I hadn’t even noticed them until you said that,” Adam said. Normally, I’d make a playful remark about my husband being not very observant, but I think we’ve all had the experience of becoming so accustomed to the presence of a sound, we no longer notice it. My family lives in a home surrounded by woods. The sounds of nature, especially crickets, are ever-present in our lives, at least during the warmer months. Thinking about that, I thought about how I allow myself to turn God into those crickets. God is all around me. He’s with me – with all of us – always. He’s ever-present and all-knowing. I sometimes take that for granted, and I thoughtlessly ignore His workings in my life and in the world. I let God fall into the background. That’s something I’ve been trying to work on. I’m trying to be more aware of and more thankful for God’s blessings and His presence in my life. I try to give myself little reminders – a prayer card placed in the console of my vehicle, the palm cross in my kitchen, the medal I typically wear around my neck. These items remind me to pray, to give thanks. And, of course, I now have the crickets. |
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