Willard Metcalf. Sunlight. Museum of Fine Art Houston.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. Acts 17:27
God is invisible, but God is not hiding—we just can’t see Him clearly. Everything that is visible has been created by God. The Uncreated One must then be invisible, but He is always making Himself known to us in the magnificence of creation and in the incarnation of Jesus.
We are the baby in the darkness of the womb who cannot see its mother but lives within her protective warmth, touching the edges of her, hearing her voice, sensing her presence. We can only wait until, in the fullness of time, we are born into the world and are finally embraced by the one in whom we have lived and moved and had our being since the moment of our conception.
Now, born at last, feet grounded firmly on the earth, we watch for numinous shadows of our Creator’s presence in everything around us. We develop what Jesus referred to as “eyes that see and ears that hear” 1 by tamping down our need to interrogate the Mystery and coming again to sit at His knee as the little children did, simply reveling in the goodness of His presence with us.
“The sound of beautiful music touches our soul and brings us together to a higher place just for a moment. Certain smells and sights connect us with our memories and reassure us of the continuity of time and the constancy of creation. The sweet smell of a tree is good. The feel of its bark is good. The sight of its sheltering strength is good. The sound of the wind ruffling its leaves is good. It is all good. God is total goodness, and these moments bring us in touch with Him and the oneness of all things. We all have a deep sense that there is much, much more to life than the way our ego is asking us to live it, but when we are given glimpses of the reality awaiting us, we tend to miss them because we are so busy. The more we pay attention, and the more we desire to move into this divine world, the more of these moments we will have, and finally the Light will break through.”
The Hidden Life Awakened pp 184-185
In the fullness of our time, we will be born again into ultimate supernal and eternal beauty, awakening at last in the loving arms of our transcendent Mother/Father. We will at last see face to face.
Until then, we wait in faith and hope, paying deep attention to the myriad numinous signs of His presence with us.