The Chatter of Crickets

I just finished reading a novel entitled, When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. One reason I liked the book is because it portrayed Christians in a realistic manner. They were neither the negative stereotypes so prevalent in the secular media nor the positive stereotypes so common in Christian fiction. The Christians in this book were ordinary people, flawed yet earnest people of faith.

They are unique and interesting people. For example, one of the most religious characters in the book is named Davis (so I naturally paid attention). He ran a bar called “The Well.” (I heard echoes of the biblical story of the Samaritan woman at the well.) When Davis bought the place, it had a neon sign on the roof that outlined a woman wearing nothing but high heels and cowboy boots. He decided to keep the sign in place, along with the four neon beer signs in the windows.

On the outside it looked like a strip club, but on the inside there were no exotic dancers. Davis served beer, but he was careful to serve only nonalcoholic beer to anyone underage – without them being aware of the switch. He also hosted several Bible Studies in the bar each week. He was known for his generosity and his prayer life.

Then there is the little girl who sold lemonade at an outdoor stand. She had a side hustle raising and selling crickets for bait. One passage says: “She looked down, and the crickets fell quiet, making a low, almost inaudible chatter, as if they obeyed or observed something I knew nothing about. It was like a song you could hear only if you weren’t trying to listen, or a far-off star that you could see only when you weren’t focusing, and then only out of the corner of your eye.”

That sentence is not the most powerful or important one in the book. In its context it is quickly overshadowed a few sentences later by a description of the crickets crying and explains why they are crying ... giving the title to the book. But for me the earlier sentence describing the “almost inaudible chatter” of crickets was the one that stuck with me.

It reminds me of the Kingdom of Heaven. “It was like a song you could hear only if you weren’t trying to listen, or a far-off star that you could see only when you weren’t focusing, and then only out of the corner of your eye.” That describes my awareness of the Divine Reality that I call God.

God is not an Object that can be seen or heard. God is not visible or audible. God is the Subject that speaks through intuitive silence that is louder than words. God speaks in the “still, small voice” that Elijah heard on Mount Horeb. I prefer the translations that call this divine voice “the sound of gentle stillness” or “the sound of sheer silence.”

You cannot see God, but you see everything by God and through God. When you are not focusing on God, you sense the presence of God. You can hear the Song of the Universe only if you are not trying to listen. Taoists call this wu wei (non-action) or wei wu wei (action without action). Spiritual sight is about seeing without looking. Spiritual hearing is hearing without listening. Knowing God is unknowing the God of our understanding.

Spiritual Reality is incommunicable in human words or thoughts. It is inadequately communicated in human actions. It is sometimes glimpsed in art and music. It is occasionally seen through holy lives. Generally speaking, the Wine of God is too strong for these human wineskins. For that reason it tends to come chiefly in a still, small voice ... a low, almost inaudible chatter. Those with ears to hear, let them hear.