Last night while walking my dog I was serenaded by tree frogs, katydids, crickets, the buzzing of mosquitoes and the barking of a dog far off in our little city. I like night sounds. About two A.M. I awoke for a while and listened to a freight train rumbling its way across Leominster. Its distant horn sounded as it crossed roads outside the city and sang me back to sleep. Who knows what dreams of mine were filled with faraway places or better yet places nearby packed with people I love. Those are the best kind.
I have never had a Nebuchadnezzer dream so important I wanted to know what it meant. Freud would find my dreams too simple for analysis. I never had a voice calling me like Samuel. I am intrigued by people who speak of God telling them things. This past week in church someone told of God telling her to play her guitar. God does silently guide my thoughts as I read in John or Paul. He feeds me until my brain is full. But never has He told me to take a call to a church or to teach at a specific school. He didn’t tell me who to marry. Well, maybe He did by placing her in front of my admiring eyes.
I like night sounds. They are the common sounds of life after a city has fallen asleep, except for that guy on a motorcycle without a muffler who moves from traffic signal to traffic signal at 1:45 A.M. There isn’t anything much more hauntingly beautiful than talking to an owl after dark. Perhaps that owl is God’s voice telling me He loves me.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 9, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org