Open Our Eyes: And Our Ears

By John Huegel

“At the close of his sermon in the Family Worship on the evening of September 4, 2022, David Huegel challenged us during the next three months to seek a fuller awareness of the presence of God in our lives by revitalizing our prayer life. As a result of this challenge, I began to wonder what I might do and was inspired to write a devotional book with short meditations on the presence of God in our daily life.” I chose a brief statement by the English mystic, Julian of Norwich for the theme of the book:
“Fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.”
My hope is that as we meditate on the wonders of God around us and in our life experiences, we may sense His presence and be filled with joy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669856733

Book preview

Prologue

At the close of his sermon in the Family Worship on the evening of September 4, 2022, David Huegel challenged us during the next three months to seek a fuller awareness of the presence of God in our lives by revitalizing our prayer life. He suggested we try arrow prayers, short prayers during the day, expressing our prayers out loud, writing our prayers in a journal, or something new which we had never done before.

As a result of his challenge, I began to wonder what I might do and was inspired to write a devotional book with short meditations on the presence of God in our daily life. Bob Manning, a friend here at EdenHill Communities, shared with me a thought from Julian of Norwich (1343- c1416), an English mystic whose work, Revelations of Divine Love, is the earliest writing in English by a woman. Somewhere she wrote:

Fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.

This does not mean that God is everything, as some people have mistakenly believed, but rather that since God is the creator of everything, his imprint is on everything he created.

I decided to use this statement as the theme for this little book. I hope that as we meditate on the wonders of God around us and in our life experiences, we may sense His presence and be filled with joy.

I dedicate this book to my extended family and am sending it to all forty plus descendants and spouses of Frederick J. Huegel and Alleen DeGaris. It is my Christmas present to all of you.

By Way of Explanation

I realize that though many of the members of my extended family attend church and are sensitive to religious matters, others are not and may be turned off by anything religious. I have wanted this collection of meditations to be attractive to both those who are religiously inclined and those who are not, so many of the meditations or reflections, are not on religious subjects. My hope is that those who have had some sense of the presence of God in their lives may come to perceive it more clearly and that those who have not may begin to experience it. I want to make it clear that I believe the awareness of the presence of God is not merely a religious matter but rather encompasses all of life. Perhaps, some of you will find the way Eugene Peterson renders Psalm 31:6 in The Message, appropriate: I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust.

When we speak of being aware of God’s presence, what do we mean? According to the dictionary to be aware is to show realization, perception or knowledge of something. I think the modern idea of mindfulness explains it better. Mindfulness is the quality or state of being conscious of something. It is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations (Google). Since God is not physically visible to us, to be aware of his presence we must pay attention to that deep inner center of our life. In the prologue of the Gospel of John we learn that this center is the true light that enlightens everyone (1:9), the light that all human beings have. For lack of a better word, some have called it the soul.

The author, Frederick Buechner, writes: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. He also suggests, that we should never stop searching our own lives for clues to the presence of God. In most of the following meditations I invite us to reflect on every-day common place things in the world around us, on our personal experiences, and on a few religious themes. Significant as these reflections may be, however, they can never take the place of quietly listening in our inner sanctuary where God dwells.

I will also look in on experiences of my own life where at the time I did not sense the presence of God, but in retrospect can now see his providential hand at work. For some of the meditations I have quoted from what I have written in my journals or in some of my books, and for others I have quoted from authors I have read. The meditations are in no particular order.

There may be fleeting moments when God in his grace chooses to reveal himself to us in a special way and the perception of his presence is so palpable that it is transforming and overpowering. To me those moments are like oases in a desert. Paul had a number of them. The first when Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus and told him what to do (Acts 9:1-19). Another when in Corinth, the Lord assured him in a vision that he would be protected from those who sought to do him harm (Acts 18:9). And after the riot in the precincts of the Temple when he was imprisoned in the Antonia Fortress, God promised him in a vision that he would bear witness also in Rome (Acts 22:11). There are long stretches in the desert where the presence of God seems withdrawn and we must walk by faith alone, but then he provides spiritual oases where we sense his nearness. In my long trek of ninety-two years through the desert of life, God has provided a number of these oases in which he has refreshed my soul. In the meditations I refer to three of them.

We should recognize that God’s presence in our lives is always veiled or incomplete. We see this in the experience of Moses. In Exodus 33.11 we read that when he went into the tent of meeting (the tabernacle), The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. This would seem to indicate that Moses’ perception of God’s presence was full and complete. But a little later, when Moses asked God to show him his glory, the Lord responded by saying he would show him his mercy but added, …you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live. Then he told Moses to go stand on a rock and said, while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock; and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen (Ex 33:20-23). It is clear that even though Moses had an intimate relation with God he could not see God as one recognizes a person by his face. All our awareness of the presence of God is partial and incomplete.

I have decided to place the following meditations in the time frame of forty days. Why forty days? In the Bible the number forty seems to be significant.

After the rains ceased Noah waited forty days before sending the raven (Gn 8:6).

Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the tables of the law for forty days (Ex 24:18).

The spies spent