LISTEN ONLINE“Bethany, wash your hands please. Dinner’s ready.” Engrossed in play, our little granddaughter totally ignored her dad’s instruction, so he repeated it. Again, no response. Turning up the volume slightly, my son advised, “Bethany! Switch on your ‘listening ears’! I said, ‘Go wash your hands. Dinner’s ready.’ ” Looking round, she tweaked both ears with an accompanying clucking noise and cutely replied, “I’m listening, Daddy. What did you say?”
One night young Samuel heard someone calling his name (1 Samuel 3:4). Unfortunately, he responded to the wrong person, to Eli (v. 5). He did not know who was speaking because “[he] did not yet know the Lord” (v. 7). And yet this is the boy who not only visited the Tabernacle but lived there . . . close to the very ark of God (v. 3 ). He didn’t merely listen to sermons but was brought up by the High Priest. Yet, Samuel had never before heard God speak, for “the Word of the Lord had not been revealed to him” (v. 7). All that changed for this boy who would later become God’s prophet (v. 20-21), and ultimately Israel’s kingmaker. And Samuel listened from that night.
Listening is active: giving attention to what you hear. How marvellous that God wants to speak into every area of our lives. Let’s make sure that we have our ‘listening ears’ switched on, or we may well miss something vitally important.