Today I am Writing: On Listening

I've been thinking about Samuel, that boy child sent to live with people not his people, for the sake of "the LORD." Samuel didn't ask to be born and he didn't ask to be consecrated but there he was, the answer to his mother's sincere prayer and heart, with a grumpy old man and his derelict sons.

And because I think about childhood pretty much all of the time, I find myself wondering: What kind of childhood did that boy child have?

But the other day I was there in the kitchen and I had been hearing from the Lord that really in this moment my directions are very simply to Believe Hope Listen, and I remembered the call, "Samuel! Samuel!" and so I went and looked it up.

I read Samuel's reply: "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening" and that jumped right up and bit me a bit, the criteria for hearing the speaking I-wouldn't-mind-right-now being "I am listening."

And then I read the Almighty One's response, which was, essentially: "I'm gonna make some people's ears, tingle."

I said, "God, did you really just use the word tingle?"
And then I realized who He was speaking to: A child.

Children love phrases like that.

Of course, that God went on to tell that child about all the destruction He was about to do, which just feels like "traumatic" to me, but...here's the point: He acknowledged that lonesome boy child. He got down on his level before he trusted him with the very movement of Almighty Working in the World. Where we read 'destruction' God saw 'justice,' fighting for those who were oppressed. And He entrusted it to an oppressed one.

"Speak Lord, for your servant is listening." Will I listen with the heart of a child, seen and known? Will I listen with and for the heart of the oppressed? Will I listen for what that Almighty One is going to do, in order to restore justice in every big and small way?

Those are big questions, that very simply boil down to: Will I listen for a God who uses words like "tingle" when dealing with a child?
Because, in truth: I can't get enough of a God like that.