What did Jesus do for 40 days and 40 nights? Honestly, we will never know. But what we do know is that this time in the wilderness was intended for Jesus to be alone with God. Sand and silence and God – that’s all there was to sustain him. Seeking time to be in communion with God seems to me to be the point of Jesus’ Wilderness experience. That communion has a name: prayer!
Prayer! Do we know what prayer means? We so often think of prayer as words spoken. But for most of Christian history prayer emerged out of silence. When we come into God’s presence and talk to God, we have a one-sided conversation – it’s all about me. Yet when we come into God’s presence and are silent, we open ourselves up to listen for God, to listen to God, to listen with God – it’s all about God.