It is quite right that you should feel that “something terrific” has happened to you (It has) and be “all glowy.” Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean, it is not the sensations that are the real thing.
The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit which can’t usually be—perhaps not ever—experienced as a sensation or emotion. The sensations are merely the response of your nervous system. Don’t depend on them. Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too.
But it won’t. It will be there when you can’t feel it. May even be most operative when you can feel it least.
From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Words to Live By
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Just as “falling in love” produces such wonderful and beautiful feelings, the glow of new spiritual life is sublimely enchanting as it should be. And just a real love is the product of first love, so is the gift of the Holy Spirit the product of being reborn. It is new life and light in all its glory and it is to be fully experienced.
It is not the thing however, but just the experience of it entering our lives; the rush of sensory perception accompanying the Holy Spirit. The thing itself is the “still small voice” that abides in us; not the sound and the fury accompanying Him, but His actual voice itself that whispers righteousness to us. It is the whisper of our Father guiding us to our destiny as children of God.
“Then He said, ‘Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-12)
Leaning in and listening to God,
Z gardener
Author’s note: Another new gardener is blessing us with his presence in the garden today. He is a long time friend, devoted husband and father who is courageously facing his life with a determination to hear and follow the “still small voice”. Proud of you brother and welcome to the garden. SF
Good Morning Garden 
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