will you recognize him?
A few years ago I enjoyed watching Joan of Arcadia, an Emmy award winning television show that told the story of a teenager, Joan Girardi, who each week encountered and spoke with God and performed some task that she was given. Each week God appeared to Joan as an ordinary human being and each week He was a different person. One week God was a little girl, then a dog walker, next week a trash man, then a newscaster, a housewife, hall monitor, groundskeeper, or a street guitarist.
Reflecting on how God spoke with Joan, I realized that this might be one possible way that God speaks to each of us. When you consider that God is with us and in us, always and everywhere, why should he not speak to us through one another. We are called to see Christ, the Son of God, in every face we meet; if so then what does that tells us about where to hear his voice?
A few weeks ago I spent an evening with a cousin whose husband was near the end of his life. I arrived at their home, filled with questions, wondering why him, why now? I came to realize that God was with us that evening in a very real sense and that he had answered all my questions, every last one of them. I heard God in the voices of my cousin and her husband. I saw Him through the eyes and voice of someone who was ready to meet and speak directly with God, no more middleman.
God does speak to each of us. He answers all our prayers and gives us all that we need to live our lives as he intends. To hear His voice you must look for Him, see Him in others, and then listen with an open heart and mind. I can’t promise that He will tell you what you expect or want to hear, but then, what can you do, after all, He IS God.
