Through the reflections and the tears

The rain came down in buckets yesterday, and with it came the wind; my husband informed me somewhat sheepishly at bedtime that he had taken down the wind chimes again while I was off at my retreat; their noise is just too distracting for him on windy days.

There was, however, a moment of calm in the morning before I left; this is a shot of an unusual wave pattern I noticed out my living room window through the fog and rain.

What intrigues me about this image -- and what intrigued me about that moment -- is that the water was so calm at that time. I know it looks like there are waves, but if you look closely you can see a bird flying low across the lower right side of the image, and you can see her reflection in the water below.

This view is on the Puget Sound side of our house, not the lagoon side. The water on that side is usually pretty choppy, so it was unusual to see it calm. But because it's calm the wave pattern is really striking -- and I have no idea what caused it; there were no boats out because the weather was so bad.

I'm thinking that the reason this photo calls to me this morning is because there are lots of rather mystical moments in our lives; lots of times when "the Lord moves in mysterious ways." But we're mostly unaware; we don't see that movement because our lives are too busy, too choppy. It's only when we manage to establish a sense of calm that we can begin to see those mystical patterns dancing across the surface our lives, guiding us or calling us or just shifting us slightly, to see things in a new way.

This scene was revealed to me -- this calm in the middle of the storm -- because, if only for a moment, I chose to pause and look outside my window. Yes, there are some reflections off the window. And yes, you can see the drops of rain, like tears. But through the reflections and the tears you can see God moving over the water.

Which makes me think of Genesis, Chapter 1:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."

Perhaps it looked a little bit like this.