Flashpoint

I have a framed photograph my husband and I picked up long ago on one of our travels. Recently I unwrapped this picture so I could hang it. Yes, four years after our move and I still don't have everything hung up...don't judge! It's a photo of a massive lightning strike over a sandstone formation somewhere in Arizona, entitled "Flashpoint." I was intrigued by the title and looked up the definition. A flash-point is the point at which eruption into significant action, creation or violence occurs.

Interesting. Then I researched how lightning grows from nothing into a massive spark. Without getting into a lot of technical, sciencey jargon: air is normally filled with evenly distributed positive and negative charges. During a storm these charges become separated--mostly positive charges concentrate in the top of the clouds and mostly negative in the bottom. The earth carries a positive charge. Opposites attract, so at some point critical mass is achieved and an invisible 'stepped leader' of negative charge rushes toward the earth. Once it connects, a positive electrical charge rushes back up that 'stepped leader,' releasing a burst of electrical light and power which we see as lightning. The stepped leader naturally moves toward the highest object in the area, which is why we don't stand outside in an electrical storm. Sometimes as the initial stepped leader is descending, the opposing charge rises from earth to meet it.

Soooo, lightning is essentially Earth's visible response to an invisible touch from Heaven. Obviously I can't take the analogy too far, but that speaks. That so clearly and loudly speaks. God is always prior. He is the initiator. He is the source. What I see as my choice, my love, my seeking after God is actually the natural response of a created being to her Creator. He is before and above and in all things primary. When He reaches to me, my spirit leaps to Him along a path He had already made. When His love touches me, closing the circuit, my heart is pulled inexorably to His. 

I like that idea of spiritual flash-point, that moment when love and longing attain critical mass and Abba's gaze and presence reach down. So I want to make myself a likely target for His presence by being intentional in my relationship with Him. It's not that I make anything happen; it's not dependent on my knowledge or my maturity, but my need. My felt need for more of Him drives me to actively present myself before the Lord, worshipping, praying, fasting, musing on the loveliness of God in Scripture. That builds my hunger for Him and sets me in an atmosphere in which my Father is likely to draw near. Like standing on top a tall building in a thunderstorm, I simply present myself as the most likely target when His presence touches down.

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord

And to meditate in His temple.

Psalm 27:4 NASB