There’s an interesting page in the middle of almost every bible. It has no header, no maps, photos or fun pictures of fire from heaven, floods, or bears eating people. Unless somebody writes notes on this page, I don’t think any of us really pays much attention to it, because it’s blank. The page proceeding it sounds like a bar-be-que: there’s fire, sunshine, beef, and destruction (Typical Lee BBQ or O.T. Prophecy). But wait, there’s also healing too, if you’re on God’s side.

The page after this has a bunch of “begats” (thirty-nine of them). The genealogy is lengthy, but has nothing on the first several chapters of First Chronicles. The family tree outlined on the page following the blank page of interest is more fun than the rest because it ends with Jesus.

This one page represents four hundred years of God not talking. Maybe we don’t give it any more than a single sheet of white paper because the idea of this kind of silence scares that crap out of us, considering that God Himself said that we won’t live by bread alone, but we need every word that comes out of His mouth (Deut. 8:3).

Ummm, God? Were you planning on starving your people?

Apparently not. The Jews survived. Then again, they had the Pentateuch and the prophets to read. Out of nowhere though, an angel showed up and told Zechariah that he and his old wife would have a son. Then Gabriel made his random appearance and explained to Mary that even though she hadn’t done anything to get pregnant, that she soon would be. We all know where that goes.

Once Jesus was born, more angels showed up and told the shepherds to go check Him out. Wise men followed a star to their savior. It was kind of a big deal, even if He was born in a barn. I never understood why these people left. If I lived in the time that my savior was born and I believed that He was the Christ (some people took some convincing), then I’d follow Him around. Probably have to basically stalk Him and look like a creepy old man. I’m not sure. Either way, they all took off and there’s no mention of Jesus being anyone’s savior (in the text) for another thirty years.

The God-Man eventually got baptized by John and the heavens opened up in the process. The Spirit descended on Him like a dove (I think God chose a dove because other birds would paint a different picture- imagine this happening with a barn owl, pelican, humming bird, vulture, canary… they just don’t work). People witnessed this and funny enough, none of them followed Jesus into the wilderness. God’s son was announced then disappeared for forty days. I would have had a problem with this. God got quiet once. His Son showed up, He left. He may have come back, but then there was the time that lead up to Pentecost. Christ was clearly alive, but where was this Helper He promised? It seems that God has a habit of disappearing.

Sometimes, God doesn’t talk. Plenty of old, dead white dudes have offered explanations on this, but none of them have made it less scary. I promise that as a man-child with a blog, I’m not likely to solve this problem, but I can tell you this: He’s left His word for us. He never stays gone and just like the almost-creepy bumper stickers say, He’ll be back to get you soon. You might just have to tolerate the occasional blank page in the meantime.