God and the Woodpecker

One of the ancient desert fathers was asked how he managed to pass time along in the desert without any books. He said, “I am surrounded by God’s book”! By which he meant that we can listen to God speak both in Scripture and in nature.

I thought of this last week when we had a retreat in Blowing Rock, NC with a group of ministry leaders.

During a mid morning break my colleague MaryKate Morse asked us to go off by ourselves and simply to listen to what God might be saying to us.

As I sat in the shelter of the building (away from a cool mountain wind) I heard a woodpecker at work nearby … and as I listened the following words came to me:

WOODPECKER GOD

Woodpecker God
pecking
piercing
probing
the hard bark of my life
penetrating
the marrow of my soul

April 27, 2005, Blowing Rock NC

How often do I sit still and quiet enough to know how God is probing my own heart? How about you?

Leighton Ford

May 4, 2005