At times, one needs more than imagination to appreciate power. As I walked through a garage, I could see endless examples of power. To eliminate any doubts, black type on white paper on the windshield was available. I easily imagined the power. Mentally, I was a believer. However, the simple act of watching, no feeling, an AMG GT back into the garage for the last empty spot changed everything.
While the externals were quiet, almost unassuming, the sound of the engine was anything but. It wasn’t trying to be loud. There was no revving engine or out of context exhaust notes. What I felt was the raw horsepower of a very powerful car slowly backing in. Even from thirty feet away, I could feel the engine cylinders in action. It was raw, unfiltered, and so impressive.
There are times when I wish Divinity would be this way with me. I want to move beyond imaging. I am looking to feel the power, experience the raw unfiltered emotions of being overwhelmed and awed. The need is there, echoed well in an old psalm. “Hurl your lightning in every direction; shoot your arrows this way and that.” (Psalm 144.6).
If you are anywhere near a volcano, I invite you to watch it in silence. If you can, try to experience a thunderstorm in the Midwest of the US or during the Indian monsoon season. As I close my eyes, I am a child on a small island in Cochin’s harbor. The humid afternoon gave way to a nighttime storm with intense lightning strikes all around the doc bungalow we were staying in. Until I witnessed lightning strike a pine tree a hundred feet from me, I thought I knew what power was. As the strike hit and the tree exploded, I could feel my body tingling and hair standing on end.
Divinity is demonstrating the stuff, loudly and quietly. When I slow down to see Divinity at work, in a sunrise, in the look between lovers, in the sound of a bee around a flow, awe always follows.
