ears that hear

Last week we took Josiah to the beach. It just so happened to be the day of a -3.8 tide. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but the water level was way lower than normal. We did meet a guy there who explained that once a decade or so the moon is exactly opposite us and its gravitational pull causes the tide to be pulled back far beyond what is considered typical. Evidently, the water in the Puget Sound was 3.8 feet more shallow than normal.

It was really cool. We saw starfish, sea cucumbers, a sea anemone, tons of barnacles and all kinds of other sights that are great for adults and mesmerizing for children. Josiah was so excited that he kept running off ahead of us to explore more new and uncharted territory. Each time he did we had to call him back and warn him not to get too far ahead. Well, you already know where this is going, don’t you? At one point he bolted, we yelled, but he simply wouldn’t listen. After about a 50-yard sprint, like a prisoner who just got over the wall, Josiah hit a puddle that was a little deeper than he thought and fell, face down, into it. Wet sand and salt water soaked his entire front side as 3-year old screams pierced the air. That kid didn’t even try to get up! He just lay there bawling until I ran up, pulled him out of the puddle, quickly took a picture—it was pretty funny in a twisted kind of way—and comforted him.

Now, that little guy has ears and they work just fine. As a matter of fact, they work pretty great. Carla and I can’t even seem to whisper secrets back and forth any more! He hears them all! But just because he has ears, didn’t mean he heard or listened to our warnings and cries at the beach. If only he’d paid attention to our parental advice. If only he’d obeyed our instructions. If only he had ears that hear.

Doesn’t that describe you and me? How often have we known the right thing, the wise thing, the Godly thing, but still chosen the wrong, the foolish, the ungodly. Most of us have ears that work just fine, but that doesn’t mean we truly hear, listen and obey. Like Josiah, we find ourselves far away from the familiar, loving voice of our Father. We continually fall down, with sin all over us, screaming for help. And He, like a good Father, continually comes to our rescue.

The Bible has a lot to say about this very phenomenon. The prophets, in particular, were known for their attempts to shake people up, disturb the status quo and wake people from their spiritual slumber. In Ezekiel 12:2 God tells the prophet that he lives among a people that “have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.” Those kinds of warnings scare me a little. I don’t want to have eyes, but be blind. I don’t want to have ears and yet be deaf. I don’t want to rebel against God. I want to develop and cultivate a spiritual sensitivity for whatever God may be saying and doing.

Maybe “reality” is more than what we can physically see, hear, smell, feel and touch. Perhaps our faith in the unseen is as important—or even more important—than the seen. Maybe it’s possible to see through eyes of faith. Perhaps we can all hear through ears of faith. And maybe, just maybe, that faith will guide us to a whole new place…a whole new way of loving, living and leading like Jesus.