The Sunday Sermonette – A Tender Voice.
Who remembers their first answering machine? Do you remember recording your outgoing message and replacing the cassette when it filled up with recorded messages? While rummaging around in my garage, I found an old box of answering machine tapes, some dating back to the 1980s. Talk about memories!
I remember what fun I had recording my silly outgoing messages. Or should I say, I remember “Beulah” and “Wellington” recording their foolishness. Listening to many of the old tapes, I was amazed when total strangers would leave the most sensitive messages, especially after listening to our silly outgoing messages.
A St. Louis law office secretary left a message full of personal information about an upcoming trial. I was shocked, to say the least. She got irate when I returned her call to tell her of her mistake. She demanded that I send her the tape. I laughed and hung up. However, I still have that tape.
Other messages from family and friends conjured both happiness and sadness, much joy and some anger, along with a longing for that which was and could never be again. Many messages were those of friends and loved ones whom Father God has called Home.
Hearing my dear mother’s sweet voice brought tears to my eyes. Hearing Dad’s strong base voice, reminding me to watch an upcoming A+E Biography segment about Hitler, made me long for one more conversation with him to discuss all things historical, especially about WWII and the Titanic.
Hearing the voices of those long gone from one’s life is somewhat bittersweet. You remember the good times. You remember the bad times. Sometimes, you just remember.
Rummaging through the cassettes, I thought how wonderful it would be to discover one that held messages from Father God and Loving Jesus. I thought how comforting it would be to hear their messages of love, encouragement, hope, or even warnings about upcoming pain, sickness, and death.
The Good Book tells us that Jesus said His sheep hear His voice. He didn’t say the sheep sorta hear His voice or should hear it; the Book states His sheep do hear His voice. Some Believers have difficulty hearing His voice, but that doesn’t mean Jesus is not talking to them.
Television and radio stations transmit day and night, twenty-four-seven. However, we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. Failure to listen to the signal doesn’t mean the station isn’t transmitting. Likewise, Jesus constantly broadcasts messages to His sheep, but only some are adequately tuned in.
The Book of Psalms says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” It’s in the stillness of the morning or the silence of the night that we hear God’s voice. He speaks to us, not in the busyness of life, with its hustle and bustle, but in its stillness. Tuning our spiritual ears to hear the transmissions of God and Jesus should be done in a spirit of tranquility—their voices will never be heard in the crash and dash of life.
As you listen to the multitudinous messages on the answering machine of your life, please take time to turn it off. Sit down in a peaceful setting. And listen for that “still, small voice,” that tender voice saying, “Come home, come home. All ye who are wearing come home.”
Ponder this and go forth.