I was released from the hospital two days after having my spleen removed last week. So far, everything seems to be going well. I have four incisions in the left side my abdomen, but no memory whatsoever of the operation. Susan and I are thankful for your prayers.
In Jesus, God our Father communicates with us, His children, through the Holy Spirit He has given us. Most obviously, He communicates through His written Word, but the Spirit also teaches us through circumstances and life experiences. All the heroes of Scripture could attest. By entering the fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego learned… Running for his life as King Saul chased, David learned… Bitten by a deadly serpent after surviving a shipwreck, Paul learned… We could go on and on.
Recently my youngest grandchild and I started playing a game. She comes to me, I whisper in her ear, then she runs off to play. I was sitting at the dinner table after a meal at Kinsey’s and Jordan’s house the first time it happened and I whispered into her right ear. After running to play a few minutes with her brother in another room, Keightley returned and offered her left ear. I whispered and asked if she understood. She nodded then ran off again.
I left the dinner table to sit on a nearby sofa when the two-year-old returned a third time. “Which ear, Keightley?” I asked. “Both ears, Opa!” she answered. So I whispered something in one ear then the other. Each time I told her things I most want her to know: how much Opa and Susu love her, how much her parents love her, how much Jesus loves her, how she needs to get along with her older brother… Keightley always listened intently and always nodded affirmatively when asked if she understood.
I hear God’s whispers in hospitals. He is the perfect Father who knows exactly what we need. This past week, I mainly remember four words: “I am with you.” It is love that prompts a grandfather to summon a grandchild to his lap so he can whisper words of love and affirmation… and it is love that leads God to whisper to us. “I love you; I created you; Jesus died for you; the Holy Spirit lives in you… do you understand?”
“Both ears, Abba!”
“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” I Kings 19:11-12
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Matthew 10:27
“Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Galatians 4:6