Children, Are You Listening?

April 18, 2020

Children, Are You Listening?

“While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.’” *

During my years of teaching elementary school, there occasionally came visitors to our classroom who graciously shared various interests, hobbies and skills with the children. Our guests included the husband of a colleague who demonstrated sheep shearing one afternoon while clutching tightly to a bleating sheep; and a father who was a Farrier shoeing one of his horses.

Robin Galloway, a Naturalist for the Forest Service, came to the classroom and gave an interesting talk on owls that included her demonstration of hooting; and often in January, Kindergarten teacher, Alvina Sue, would come to share about the Chinese New Year, wearing an embroidered red and gold jacket and carrying a decorated Lion’s head mask.

Another guest was Joy Harvey, a local artist specializing in Chinese art and calligraphy. Joy showed the kids how to paint stalks of bamboo with delicate brush strokes on rice paper. My dad and mom even came to visit, bringing along my niece, Jennifer, who shared her artwork for “show and tell.” Jennifer was about 8 years old at the time and had been taking art lessons. She definitely had talent!

Afterwards we went out on the playground where dad, former All-American football player, tossed passes to each one of the kids. In spite of feeling pretty “creaky” he still managed to throw several spirals to them while they took turns running as hard as they could to catch the football.

After Myron Wilcox retired from teaching, he would come and juggle for my students. Myron, with his brightly colored cap, always had the class transfixed as he juggled a number of different items—often all at the same time! While doing this, he would give short, memorable lessons to the kids in his booming voice.

My favorite one was, “Kids, Listen to your teacher!” Oh, how many times had I told them that? It was lovely to hear someone else say it for once! Myron certainly had their attention!

And those were just a few of the many special people who came sharing their wealth of information and talents with the children over the years. Needless to say, there was never a problem with discipline during those times.

Well, like juggling, listening is a skill that has to be practiced and perfected over time. During my sixth or seventh grade year, the teacher asked our class to come up with different parts of the buffalo that might have been useful to the Native Americans who lived on the Great Plains. I remember raising my hand and saying, “The claws!”

Everyone started laughing when the teacher pointed out that buffalo don’t have claws, they have hooves!” Did I listen? I thought she was talking about bears! How embarrassing!

Jesus talked about the importance of listening to a crowd of people around him, including his disciples, some religious leaders and others. Using the example of a shepherd calling his flock of sheep by name, he pointed out the fact that if the sheep recognized the shepherd’s voice, they would follow him to a safe place of pasture.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John11: 27-28 NIV)

Three of the disciples, Peter, James and John, heard the admonition to listen directly from God in a supernatural moment as Moses and Elijah appeared and began conversing with Jesus. “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him.” They listened too—for a time. However, those words didn’t seem to sink in until after Jesus had risen from the dead.

During this time of crisis that we are all experiencing to one degree or another, are we listening to the Lord’s voice? And how well are we listening? He definitely has something to say! May our ears be opened to hear and our hearts moved to follow Jesus, our good Shepherd.

* Matthew 17:5 NIV