What Do You Long to Hear?

Voice is so dear to me.

“My calves will hear my voice and follow me.”

What can I say! We raised cattle, not sheep!

Just last week I was responding to another hope*writer about missing the calving seasons on the farm. They are so innocent and helpless and responsive in the hours following their birth. And who can help laughing at the weak-kneed first learning to stand and negotiate solid ground on four legs!

One of the things that amazed me as a farm boy was how well each little one knew it’s mother’s voice. To an untrained human ear, all cows’ mooing sounds the same. But to a calf, it’s mama’s voice is more distinctive than the individual leaves of the cottonwood tree in whose shade it lies (they say no leaf is the same). You might say this is intimate.

Hearing God’s voice is intimate.

In hearing God’s voice, I was first drawn beyond the doctrines of others to the living, breathing existence of my Rescuer, the Faithful One who declared to me in one of the darkest moments of my life, “Chris, I will never leave you.”

Voice carries me, comes under me when I'm falling like the strong back of an eagle rising on  the winds of life’s gales. Or, like the cow, comes charging to the rescue with the slightest call of distress from the one who is utterly (no pun intended) dependent on her care.

Voice is sense above the nonsense that is the chaotic cacophony of many self-seeking cries and shouts and demands in our world. Voice is comfort and guidance and healing for all that is grieved, all that is lost.

Freedom of speech is a blessing. Freedom to speak life and hope without fear of consequence, is mightiest of all. The freedom to say whatever one desires without consequence is a fallacy. Every word has effect, for words are power.

Speak life. Speak what heals and hopes. Speak what will last when all else fades. 

May my words be the echo of Intimate and True words. May they ricochet off the walls of my heart where Water flows with might and churning power, with breath-taking beauty and grace. May their reverberation bring hope and life and healing and courage to those who hear them, because they resound with the Voice of Hope.

And may my heart forever be drawn to the Voice of the One who knows me by name, like a calf to it’s mother.