By Jessica Brodie

The breeze lifted my hair and cooled my neck as I followed our group through the wooded North Carolina terrain. Next to me, a young boy suddenly knelt to pick up a small frog.

“Oh, can I hold it?” I blurted, eagerly cupping my hands. The frog settled in, its belly expanding with deep, anxious breaths while it waited to see if I were friend or foe.

I set it back down, and we resumed our walk. Soon the boy spotted another one.

“Jessica, here’s another,” he said, snatching it up and depositing the frog in my palm.

“How do you spot them so easily?” I asked, amazed at his ability.

He shrugged. “You just have to listen. You can hear them. Then—see?”

I looked where he pointed and saw a tiny creature jump, then land in the leaves.

Listen. See.

Such simple words in such a busy, busy world.

Yet sometimes that’s what it all comes down to, isn’t it?

In Scripture, Jesus’s phrase “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear” is found repeatedly through the Gospels, and it’s also in the Book of Revelation. He says this after a lesson he’s taught. Scholars generally believe it refers to spiritual understanding and discernment, a genuine soul-listening cultivated through an open, willing, and receptive heart.

Heed this word, Jesus is saying. Pay attention, and let the truth work its way into your being and change your life.

Yet do we heed the word? Not always.

All around us, the world clamors for our attention. Busy lives, commitments and responsibilities, temptations of fun and frivolity—even seemingly innocent ones—steal our attention from the good and the godly. God has given us truth, and it’s truth we’ve heard and truth we should know in our core, yet we get distracted. We allow walls to build up between us and the Lord, allow other priorities to eclipse the One, the Alpha and the Omega.

It takes slowing down and stepping away from that bustle and noise to listen—to cultivate ears that hear and eyes that see. To foster and nurture discernment.

As a born-and-raised city girl, I’m not naturally gifted at listening and then spotting frogs in the woods. But I’m trying. And as a sinful human, I’m not always great at refining my ears to hear God’s voice amid all the noise. But I’m trying even harder.

Have you ever slowed down long enough to really hear something special God was saying? What was it? How do you cultivate “ears to hear” in your life? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

A prayer: Lord, the noise persists all around me. It’s always there, always trying to distract me from you. But I know that waiting for the noise to go away isn’t the answer. The answer is softening and opening my heart, mind, and soul so I can be fully receptive to you and the word you give me. Strengthen my ears and help me hear you today and every day. I love you, God. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen.

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