God Enters Delicately And Gently


Saturday, April 1 * Third Week of Lent



€ Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD; as certain as the dawn is his coming ...
He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth. Hosea 6:3

This passage holds two of Scripture's richest images about God's coming-the dawn and the spring rain If we want clues as to how God comes and how we are to receive God, these images can help us.

I'm an early riser, for which I'm grateful because I frequently get to experience daybreak. Few things happen more subtly, delicately and gently than the passage from night to day! It is so unlike instant light. But you can't experience the dawn if your eyes are distracted by artificial light or if your mind is distracted by preoccupations. You experience the dawn only by being in a passive, receptive posture, open to reality unfolding completely apart from your control.

Gentleness is also the key to the spring rain. Spring rain "waters the earth" not by sheer volume or intensity but because the freshly unfrozen surface is now porous and can absorb much moisture precisely because the rain comes slowly and doesn't run off.

0 God, help me to be open to you, who come as subtly as the dawn and as gently as the spring rains.

James E. Adams




Hosea 6:1-6 * Psalm 51:3-4, 18-21
Luke 18:9-14