Crystalline blanket
Erases color and sound
Nature’s holy hush

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For this week’s photo challenge on Silence, I decided to combine photography with poetry, writing a haiku for each photo presented here. Silence can mean many things to many people. It can be calming or frightening, welcome or unwelcome, craved or loathed. I personally love silence, for it encourages me to open my heart to communicate with the Father.

This gold cannot stay
Sun drops to the horizon
A silent farewell

Tall trees stand mirrored
On an unbroken surface
When the wind is still

 

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Fear not the silence; it has its purpose. I’ve been studying several verses lately in my quest to draw nearer to God, but the one to which I continually return is Psalm 46:10.

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God.

I searched the words silence and silent in the Bible and found many verses, two of which I’ll share with you here:

Habakkuk 2:20 ~ But the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.

Zechariah 2:13 ~ Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for He is raised up out of His holy habitation.

We show reverence and respect to God by our silence, not unlike the respect shown to an orchestra when we silently and attentively listen to their performance. When I am silent before God, I will hear His still small voice speaking to me. That’s right. God does not speak to us in flashy demonstrations of His power, but in a still small voice (I Kings 19:11-13).

In conclusion, perhaps one of the most important lessons in life is to learn when to keep silence and when to speak.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

I don’t know about you, but my mouth has gotten me into more trouble than I can shake a stick at. There is a time to speak, and there is a time to keep silence, and those who are truly wise have learned to discern the difference.

This week, let us practice the Art of Silence.

 

“Snowfall” photo taken in Chesapeake, Virginia, 2010
“Sunset” photo taken in Suffolk, Virginia, 2012
“Reflections” photo taken in Chesapeake, Virginia, 2012