to hear

So how do we hear?  Sound waves come at us as vibrations.  Those vibrations come into the ear canal and push against the eardrum.  The eardrum transmits the vibrations through a tiny and delicate bone bridge to a snail-like structure called the cochlea.  Inside the cochlea are about 18,000 tiny hair cells (all of which would fit on the head of a pin).  These sensitive hair cells move with the vibrations and send an electrical signal along a nerve to the brain for processing.  Our brain knows how to interpret the signal, as voice, music or creaking door.  It is all a mechanical and electrical process and is it not wonderful?

God's design is delicate to permit delicate sound as well as booming noise to be processed.  He is such a fine engineer that I take hearing for granted.  I have a friend who is not able to hear and I am reminded that it takes a lot of complex functions to work properly to do the most familiar activities and my friend has learned to cope without hearing by honing his skills of observation in other ways.

How do we hear the Lord?  I think that there is also a process...a sensitive process...by which the vibrations of Heaven are received in our spiritual hearing canal...pressing against our spiritual heart drum...moving over the delicate bridge of spiritual bones...entering the spiritual receptor cells of our innermost person...processed by our eternal mind, made in the likeness of our Father.  We become familiar with Heaven's sounds and the deepest, most intimate part of our person responds...with conviction...with cries of joy...with response to the reality that we are known by Him.

Jeremiah 22:29 

O earth, earth, earth,
Hear the word of the Lord!