God's Voice in the Fluff

God's Voice in the Fluff

By Silvia Ledon

A couple of days ago I was walking the labyrinth at the St. Benedict Center in Schuyler, Nebraska. It’s a gorgeous place - quiet, spacious, and deeply peaceful. I had come carrying an armload of worries, heavy ones, the kind that linger at the edge of your thoughts, whispering worst-case scenarios and raising every “what if” imaginable.

So I decided to do something about it. As I walked, I handed each fear to God, one by one. I named them: all my anxious spirals and the dark stories I tell myself when I’m scared. I didn’t hold back. I figured God could take them.

There’s a tall Easter Cottonwood tree by the labyrinth, and as it happens every June, the air was full of cotton-like fluff. It was flying everywhere, thick and wild and magical. I live on the East Coast so I had no idea what it was at first. I didn’t even know where it was coming from until I looked again.

At the end of my litany of fears, I paused and looked around. The fluff was so dense it felt like it was snowing. Out loud, I asked, “What is it?”

As I said the words, I almost audibly heard God say: “Manna.”

I remembered that from the Exodus story—manna means “what is it?” The Israelites asked that when they found food on the ground in the desert, a surprising provision in an unfamiliar form. And in that moment, I knew: God was speaking to me in the fluff.

I sensed God saying, When you need my provision, my care, my answers—I’ll have them for you, not in advance, not stored up for a future fear, but just enough for each day.

Like the manna in the wilderness, I couldn’t gather God’s provision for tomorrow. But I could trust it would be there when I needed it.

That simple truth landed in me like a balm. Peace came, fast and quiet, surprising in its gentleness. And with it, joy. God was in the fluff. That strange, floating snow of summer became a reminder: I’m not alone, and I don’t have to carry it all. God has what I need - for today.

And for now, that’s enough.

Dear reader, how is God showing up in your life?