When God is Silent, does that mean God is Absent?

“Where is God when you need him?” She said angrily. “All I get from him is silence.”  Later her words rang in my ears as I stared out the window into the surrounding woods. The panorama is a bleak scene of tall trees and bare branches. Looking sad and lonely, these stalwart trees solemnly stand quiet and still. 

I  thought, these trees may look stark, serene, and still, but these trees are still alive. In the ground underneath them, new life is waiting to burst into the freshness of another season. In just a few weeks we will see their re-energized individuality bursting into various shades of green which birds and squirrels will take full advantage. Do you think  the wonders of what lie ahead keep them alert and watchful in their silence? Who knows what life and bustle are happening underneath that uninterrupted silence at this exact moment?

It was then I heard those words piercing the silence once  again. “Where is God when you need him? All I get is silence.” Then I stared at the trees once again. Like these trees,  God is near because he promised he would be. And there he stands robust, tall, but silent right outside my window. As in the trees’ underside as it is with God, life-cycles flow and froth but is scarcely heard except with faith.

Creation is God’s priority. Since he created us, God works hard and persistently to save us. Sometimes he does this with deeds and sometimes he saves us with words.  It’s his goal and it is universal. He wants everyone saved and with him for all eternity.  God loves us and love is his magnetic connecting force.  God may be quietly near, but he is also alive.

Ronald Rolheiser, the popular spirituality writer, writes: “God is present and intervenes in all situations, but not in the way we ordinarily understand.  God is present in the way beauty is present, in the way a helpless innocent newborn is present, and in the way truth is present.”

The poinsettias in our church this Christmas in the mixed shades of red, white, and  pink said little with words, but blew us away with their natural unruffled colors. God’s presence is like that. Majestic, but often leaving us dumbstruck. When your child coughs at night, from somewhere nearby in the night silence our God consoles and comforts, but never interferes.

Why not? Because God is respectful, and inspires us from stillness. His touch moves others to act. Again Rolheiser words, “God’s power, like that of a newborn, like the power of beauty itself, fully respects you.”

 Therefore, when we ask, “Where is God in the times of tragedies or natural disasters?”  God is there at each, quietly prompting others or giving strength to those who need help or courage to get through a challenging situation. God always will either take away the pain or give us the grace to endure it.

That’s why I believe every prayer we utter is heard and answered. Yet often not in the exact way we want. God always gives us what we need or the freely given grace to involve ourselves with God at right hand.  Indeed the one thing we can trust faithfully is our God is never absent from our lives.

You are my people and I will be your God!