“The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud..”

God can come to us in any way He chooses. In the Bible we see Him manifesting His presence in numerous ways, and ultimately, of course, in Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Sometimes God comes to us in a “dense” cloud. His ways are regularly mysterious, and although He is with us we may not see Him.

I was reflecting on this recently, and then I picked up Joyce Huggett’s book, ‘Listening to God.’ A very dear friend loaned it to me a little while back, and I’ve been slowly working my way through it as part of my morning devotions. Having just thought about God coming in “a dense cloud”, I found myself reading about a period in Joyce’s spiritual pilgrimage when she was going through a ‘dark night of the soul.’ Someone (who she describes as ‘a spiritual friend) said to her:

‘I feel so excited by this darkness of yours. You see, when you stand in the howling desert like this, you never know how God will next come to you. What you do know is that he will come. I believe God is encouraging you to look for him round every corner because he is coming – and he’s coming soon’ (p.155).

It is not for us to dictate how and when God should meet us. We know He ‘moves in mysterious ways’.

At the end of the chapter I’ve just finished, Joyce quotes this prayer. I believe it is appropriate for today:

‘Saint Catherine of Siena, Lord,

Said you are like the sea.

The more we know of you,

The more we find;

And the more we find of you,

The more we want.

Yet we never really understand you.

I don’t like that idea at all.

I want to know about you, Lord.

Just as I want to know about the sea

Or space or electricity.

But if it’s true that I can’t know it all

Then keep me wanting to know.’