We are assured from faith that God wants to communicate with us. He does it in many ways. My favorite is through a “small still voice.” This whispering voice may offer encouragement, or some small consolations like “drops of water on a sponge,” writes St Ignatius. God’s “small still voice" doesn’t come from a dark, far away “out there” place. It comes from inside us; and it shows how we can be that wonderful gift called self! St. Francis de Sales writes that this voice encourages us gently, to take the risks that can lead us to be “who we are and to be that well as a testament to the master craftsman who created us.”
Whatever our God given gifts and talents may be, they are our clues as to what God's plan is for us. Certainly, God provides differently to each of us. The point is never to forget is that God does give and does it generously. Gerard Manley Hopkins described it in this way: “For Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his.”
We have to stop, look and listen, for if we don’t, we will miss the clues and not see the signs. But above all, we will be the people that Elizabeth Barrett Browning described in her poem:
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he, who sees, takes off his shoes—
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries”
We can do better than pick blackberries. We can and should endeavor to listen to God’s “small still voice” and strive to climb mountains instead!