Quiet

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior.  He will exult over you with joy, He is quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” Zephaniah 3:17

Quiet – The word harash describes someone who does not talk or who is deliberately being silent.  But it is not what you might think.  God is not mute and He does not withhold His voice.  There is something else about this word that paints a different picture.

“I don’t need to say a thing.”  Imagine a conversation between people who love each other deeply and intimately.  One is weaker and needy.  But the other loves so much that He says, “You have not shaken my love for you at all.  I don’t need to say a thing.”  This is the silence of approval.  When God is quiet in His love, His smile is more than we need to know we are His.

When my first son was just a baby, I would hold him on my lap and play a hide and seek game with him.  I just covered his eyes with my hands and then pulled them away so that he would see me again.  He laughed in joy.  His eyes were filled with pleasure at the sight of me.  In spite of all the faults that I knew about me, he loved me without any reservations.  He brought tears to my eyes without saying a thing.

God loves me quietly.  He covers my eyes with His hands.  Then He pulls them away so that He can enjoy the sight of me and I can enjoy the sight of Him.  He sees me exactly as I am, but His love is so powerful and so nourishing that He never says a thing about the thoughts that plague me.  He just smiles and holds me.

Hebrew is a concrete language.  Its images are never far removed from the experiences of life.  Quiet love runs into the very center of who we are.  If God is in the middle of our being, He has no need to speak.  His presence is the quiet assurance of acceptance.  He loves to smile at us.  We are His own.

1 in 24:  1 time today I will close my eyes and listen to God’s silent approval of me