33 Minutes in Heaven

Coincidence Committee Journal (Secret Ways to Get Good Things Done) Startdate 1038.1219

Before the Trumpets Sound

"And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." -Revelation 8:1

There is a silence that suffocates

And a silence that sanctifies.

A silence that follows heartbreak

And a silence that prepares for thunder.

Heaven was silent for about thirty minutes.

Not because it forgot

But because it recognized the coming sound.

Some say thirty minutes. I feel thirty-three.

Thirty-three years, the span of a Savior’s mortal life.

A divine pause. A fullness. A reckoning.

And then the trumpets begin.

On Earth, the silence still lingers.

After verdicts that echo with injustice.

After dismissals that mock the cries of the wounded.

After powerful men walk free

While women are left waiting in courtrooms and closets

Unanswered.

Where are the champions?

Where is the shaking of foundations?

Where is the fire from heaven that once fell at Elijah’s call?

It is easy to feel forgotten in this silence.

But this is not the silence of apathy.

It is the silence before movement.

Scripture remembers this silence.

In the gap between Malachi and Matthew.

In the whirlwind that followed Job’s long lament.

In the cave where Elijah wrapped his face and waited.

In the hush of Gethsemane.

In the tomb on Saturday.

God does not forget.

He prepares.

This is the stillness before the shaking.

The breath before the blast.

The gathering of incense before the altar is cast to Earth.

Let no one mistake the silence for absence.

Let no one believe the delay means defeat.

Heaven is not quiet because it does not care.

Heaven is quiet because the trumpets are near.