Can You Hear Me Now?

My brothers and I.  We are older in this picture then we are in the story I share below.

    My Dad built the house where I grew up in Mahopac, NY.  The property was directly across the street from the Bailey Mansion, of the Barnum and Bailey Circus.  The land had once been part of that estate.   Rumor had it that a beloved circus elephant had been buried somewhere on one of the pieces that had been sold off.  My brother's and I looked, but we never found it.  Dad set the foundation up against an old stone structure that had been used for storing ice.   Because of this the downstairs was larger than the house.  Half of it was finished, had windows, and was at ground level.  That was the kids playroom.  The other half was under ground without windows and had the ice house attached.  The ice house didn’t have windows either.  Needless to say it was very dark and because it was largely underground felt damp and cool in the summer.  In the first part of the basement were the furnace, the water pipes, and the laundry.  Dad used the ice house for storage and as a workshop.
     One hot day my brother’s and I were playing in the dark basement.  We were pretending to be cowboys camping out under the stars.  We had bedded down the horses and sat down together to tell stories when we heard an other worldly voice.  “OOOOO.  Hellllooooo!”  The voice echoed against the stone walls.
     Our eyes must have been huge as we frantically asked each other, “Did you say that?  Did you hear that? and Who was that?”  We held each others hands tightly looking around our small circle.
     The voice came again,  “Hellllooooo, down there.  Are you being good?”
     We squeaked out a frightened “Yes!  Yes!”  I admit that I was probably the first to take off running.  I burst through the basement door, ran across the family room, and flew up the stairs.  My brother’s hot on my heels.  Mom was not in the kitchen.  We ran up the next flight of stairs and found my Mom in the bathroom cleaning the bathtub.  The three of us burst in yelling about hearing a voice in the basement.  Mom looked amused, but listened to our frantic descriptions of the voice.   “It was a ghost,” one brother asserted.  I was the oldest and the thinker in the group.  “No.  A ghost wouldn’t care if we were being good.  It had to be an angel!”  My reasoning went something like this.   Angels come from heaven - up to our down.  They watch over us.  Then they tell God if we are being good.
     My brothers squashed that idea.  What angel says, “OOOOOOO?”  Reluctantly, I admitted that they did have a point.
     My mother looked more and more amused as we carried on about the voice which became even scarier the more we thought about it.  When the three of us refused to leave the very crowded bathroom, Mom confessed that it was she who had called down to us.
     Mom pointed out a hole between the tile and the bathtub where the calking had come out.  She could hear us talking and playing in the basement.  The noise we were making must have traveled along the water pipes and then was amplified by the porcelain of the tub.  Mom could hear us, although the voices were somewhat distorted.  We were skeptical, but eventually Mom convinced us to go back down to the basement and she called again to us.  We spent the rest of the day sending messages back and forth from the bathroom to the basement.
     Have you ever wished to hear a voice from heaven?  I know that I have.  But God talks to us everyday.  Throughout the Bible are many examples of ways that God has spoken to His people.  God has used a burning bush, a flood, a donkey, angels, dreams, prophets,  a still small voice, and the cry of an infant born in a manger.  Our relationship with God is a two-way communication where we can express our love through worship, our desires through supplication, and our fears through prayer.  God rejoices over us with singing and whispers back words of love.  He paints glorious sunsets each evening and designs every snowflake that falls.  He sets the stars in the skies and knows the number of hairs on our head.  
     As we move into this very busy season where so much calls for our time and attention, let us not forget that Christmas is a celebration of the very Word of God made flesh.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders.  The Lord is over many waters.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.  ~Psalm 29:4-5

     Jesus invites us in Revelation 3:20:

 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

     Jesus wants you to hear His voice today.


Updated:  This post was featured by KarriReiser at:  My Life's A Treasure!  Visit My Life's A Treasure to see some wonderful posts!