“Because the knowledge of God is in the visible, for God has made it visible. Even though God is invisible, from creation onward this universe is the perceptible, indefensible revelation of God’s power and divinity” (Romans 1.19-20).
I like a good ghost story. There’s a satisfying shiver that comes out of a story of a haunting when it’s well told. Doors slam on empty rooms. Objects on a table are rearranged. Voices and whispers are heard when no one is around. Maybe at the climax the specters are revealed, but throughout the telling, we know something is there, but we can only perceive it through its interaction with the world.
Stories like this work for me, I suppose; because, they play on that sense of something just out of sight. The presence within the house or school or whatever building is not immediately recognized. Strange things are overlooked until the sun sets and things grow quiet. The ghosts are always around, it’s just that they go unnoticed because no one is looking for them. In the end, that’s the creepy feeling that sticks with me, that there’s something there just beyond my notice.
God, Paul tells us, is invisible. But, that doesn’t mean that God is unseen. In fact, creation reveals the presence of the Holy One. So apparent is the Divine present that Paul says it’s indefensible that anyone would try to claim that you don’t recognize that presence. He’s saying, hey, it’s right there.
Jesus said something similar, comparing the Spirit of God, which surrounds us, to the wind. You can’t see the wind, can’t grab it or hold it. But, you know it’s there in the way it moves the leaves on the trees, rustles your clothes, causes an empty swing to move.
Of course, you have to be looking to notice.
The traditional arc of a ghost story is that there’s a group or a couple in the building, but only one of them thinks something is wrong. They’re the one who keeps thinking they see something out of the corner of their eye, wonders what was that noise, and keeps pointing at small things to the others who, of course, see nothing and say it’s all in their imagination.
By the end of the story, no one has doubts about the unseen as it’s been made manifest. Invisible hands have become visible, whispered voices are now audible, and the unseen is seen. Even the most skeptical has come to admit that something, or someone is there.
We are, of course, not alone in this world. But the Presence that surrounds us, fills every inch of Creation is not one we can see with our limited, human vision. But, the evidence of it is clear if we are looking and listening.
It’s there in the rustling of the leaves in the afternoon sunlight. It’s there in the songs the birds sing first thing in the morning. In the touch and embrace of those who love us. In the warmth of a cup of coffee over our tongue. For the moment, we see only through its impact on the things of this world.
But, before the story ends, we will see face-to-face.
Divine Breath, Invisible Spirit in the rush of the day and the distractions that long for my attention, give me the grace to notice, each day, the small, perceptible movements of your Presence.