A Familiar Voice

Don’t you love it when you get a familiar voice on the other end of the phone?
Imagine calling a business with a question and the person answering goes to your church.
Imagine the smile that comes to your face when you realize, I KNOW this person!

Don’t you love when you answer your phone and it is your child in college?
Just the sound of their voice brings warmth from your head to your toes.
If they can’t be in the same room with you, this is the next best thing.

Don’t you love when you can close your eyes and hear the voices of your loved ones?
You hear their conversations as they talk and laugh together throughout the house.
Music to your ears.

Often family members sound alike.
Even my own husband doesn’t always get it right!
He often mistakes my daughters for me since our voices sound the same.

How I wish I had recorded the voices of my children through the years.
To hear the sound of their babbling and early language would be such a blessing.
We actually found some old cassette tapes of my youngest son and daughter.

They are singing and laughing together.
A moment frozen in time.
Hearing their little voices and their giggling brings me back.

A baby in the womb knows the sound of the mother’s voice.
They have been hearing that voice for nine months.
When a baby is born, they will always turn towards the sound they have heard all along.

Whispers.
Singing.
Giggles.
Laughter.

Priceless.

We each have unique fingerprints.
We each have a unique voice print as well.
Even though we may mimic another voice or accent, a bit of our own voice comes through.

Imagine if our spoken words were visible as they left our mouth and entered the air.
Soft, kind words would waft through the air like a butterfly.
Angry words would pound the air like a hammer.

What if we visualized our words before we spoke them?
What if we SAW how they sounded?
Would we be more careful?

When my mother died I remember a frantic morning.
I was always able to remember her singing and her voice as she talked to me.
One morning I couldn’t remember the sound of her voice.

It was there yesterday and gone today.
It was like losing her all over again.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t conjure up her voice in my memory.

That was a sad day.

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.” At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. “Woman,” He said, “why are you crying?” Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking it was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’ ” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news. “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that He had said these things to her. (John 20:10-18)

Mary was distressed because her Lord Jesus was not in the tomb.
Mary was certain someone had taken His body away.
There was no one to help her except the Gardener.

She thought He was the Gardener until He spoke to her.
Mary.
Simply saying her name was enough.

Imagine the smile on her face.
Imagine the joy at hearing the one voice she was longing to hear.
Imagine knowing, just from hearing His voice, that this was her Lord.

MARY!
That was all.
That was enough.

Only Jesus sounded like that.
Only Jesus could call her name in such a way.
Only Jesus’ voice could be discerned above all others.

He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. But they will never follow a stranger, in fact, they will run away from him, because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. (John 10:3-5)

Don’t you love when you hear a familiar voice?
Imagine the smile that comes to your face when you realize, I KNOW this person!
This Person knows me!

The Voice is Jesus.
He is calling.
Answer Him.