God is speaking to you

Machu Picchu has been a bucket list DREAM of mine foreverrr and although I have approximately 4 billion thoughts that I could share after this highly anticipated experience, I thought I’d simply share about what I read on the 3-hour train that day:

Recently, I’ve been looking intently into the book of Job. Today I FINALLY got to God’s response to Job’s suffering, questioning, etc. In this book of 42 chapters, God doesn’t speak until chapter 38. Maybe God was waiting for Job’s heart to be ready, maybe there were lessons Job needed to glean from the waiting, maybe God just couldn’t get a word in edgewise between all of the arrogant diatribes offered by Job’s self-important friends. Whatever the reason may be, God was seemingly silent until chapter 38.

Job’s groaning was full of questions such as, “God, do you care about me? Do you take pleasure in my suffering?” and just simply, “Why?” The crazy thing is that God never really answers any of these questions. Instead, He says, “Job, LOOK.” God’s answer pointed back at His creation and what it says about Him. Some of my favorites:

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown dawn its place…” (38:12). “Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?” (38:25-27). “Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?” (38:34-35)

God demonstrates who He is as the answer to Job’s lament. Job is yearning to see God amidst his suffering and God points to the complexity and diversity of His creation. This felt like the perfect passage for me today. Looking around at God’s creation (and the creation of His creation), I was dumbstruck. The breathtaking beauty puts my insignificance into perspective.

God’s response to Job is such a great reminder that God has made His name known to us. When God feels silent, just look around. Go watch the stars, walk through the forest, breath in the ocean air, admire the birds soaring above… He made it for you… He is speaking to you.