Can You Hear Me?
My son is 11 weeks old. If you’ve had a child you can imagine what this means. If not you may be able to imagine but it’s worse in reality than in anticipation. Really I was wondering what make babies cry? I know, I know the usual suspects, diaper, hungry, tired, gas. I’m not the baby whisperer or anything but could there be something deeper? Let’s remember babies like being held and cuddled, talked to, massaged. What does a baby do when he/she wants a massage? What about when they want people to stop talking in the silly baby talk language even babies hate?! Think about how frustrating it must be to try and get a massage and have someone looking in your diaper. Can I get some privacy here! Or what about being tired and having grown educated people act like rodeo clowns. If this is the case babies must cry more from frustration about not being understood than anything else. Giving a bottle or the breast may quiet the noise but was it really what they wanted? How much do we teach children, even in infancy, to be quiet no one understands you anyway? Now, I know we can’t help it, we don’t speak baby, but if such an enormous amount of information is learned during this time what are they learning about being heard and understood? In fact think about this Jesus used the term Father 17 times in his Sermon On The Mount. Seven of those were in reference to the Father’s ability to provide, His willingness to help, and the fact that He sees(beholds) even in secret. It seems Jesus may have been trying to communicate, among other things, that God cares and He hears us! Seemingly He wasn’t the only one either. We could reference several but perhaps one of the most beautiful is found in 2 Samuel 22:1-21
And David spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice. And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them. And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. He sent from above, he took me; he drew me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
What a magnificent scene to imagine!! David does two things for us here first he emphasizes that the Lord hears (v.4,7), then he overwhelms us with the beauty of how God answers. He heard not by hear say or because a mighty angel told it to Him. He didn’t see it on the nightly news or read about it. David says, “he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.” Poetry inspired by the Holy Spirit flows from David’s lips and over a thousand years later stirs my heart and mind as I read it. Powerful enough that volcanic language expresses his emotion yet pathetic enough to tenderly pull out as a child being delivered of it’s mother. From the frustration of incoherent sound and gurgling to the beautiful poetic message that says I hear you and I will answer!
