We live up a narrow gorge that stretches from the valley floor with its ocean and sandy beach to the top of the hill overlooking the harbor. Watching the birds ride the currents is a regular preoccupation. This spring I was watching a hawk sweep down across the pool in our backyard. As he ascended high up into the sky above the valley below he screeched loudly, over and over. I watched this magnificent creature ride the current up and down, back and forth. A short time later he swooped down into our yard again…only this time… he was silent...
He had a snake dangling from his talon!
It brought to mind what I had been reading earlier in Psalm 147:9:
“God provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens… WHEN THEY CALL”!
I am that helpless raven that is found “crying out”, totally dependent on God, placing my faith continually on His promises and unfailing love! Whether with no communication with the outside world in the jungles of Panama or here, in the U.S., with way too many ways to communicate, the most important line of communication to keep open is that with the “King of Kings”!
While in Bible School a young missionary student told me to allow the Word of God to “dwell richly” in me. Not just read and journal…but dwell richly!
In the book Princess Faith’s Mysterious Garden, Faith learned the importance of crying out to God, even though she didn’t understand why things happened to her, she learned God uses perplexing things to talk to us and grow our hearts, making us a benefit to others!
Taken from the Parable of the Sower in Matt. 13, Faith learns she can trust her heavenly Father to deeply plant His truth in her heart. She learned to accept with joy the trials her garden brought her, plus every other circumstance that came her way!
We moms live in a hurricane with endless noise and activity. Distinguishing between our “little chicks” that are “crying out” needing our immediate attention is a learned skill. Daddies struggle with it! Hearing the voice of God speaking to us is a cherished and coveted practice because He whispers in the quietness of our consciousness as His Word is read and dwells richly in us.
While writing Princess Faith, we were mindful of the desperate need moms have for those quiet teachable moments with their little knights or princesses. We included the lesson Faith learned through her facing trials of various kinds in her personal journal in the closing pages of her story (the Parable Thoughts). It is clear that Faith learned to “cry out” and to see her prayers answered.
Most of us get lost in the harried busyness of one day to another. Our hearts yearn for that moment when our little one looks up at us with total trust and silently cries out to us for our undivided attention. That moment when we take time to read and respond to their spirit and it tells us, as hard as it is at times, this nanosecond of oneness, peace and complete harmony is worth it all!
Are we listening?
Time is short!
Will you hear His silent whisper and allow the Word of God to daily “dwell richly” in you?
or
Will you miss the opportunity of His faithfulness being formed in you and your little one?
Faithfulness is not allowing busyness or adversity to cause us to be unfaithful to God’s Word and His calling or to be disobedient to His purposes.
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
