The idea for this week's Thought came to me toward the end of last week. Can I tell you how excited I was to already have a new Thought cooking, after my bout with Writer's Block the week before! Many of y'all are extremely familiar with both of my boys. They seem to provide me with more material than I can keep up with, but my daughter (dramatic as she is) seems to fly under the radar of written words. Well, you'll be happy to know, this week's Thought centers solely on Miss Emma. Emma is a terrific little girl. She's smart and funny and cute as bug. When she was a baby, she was incredibly prone to ear infections...so much so that she couldn't hear us for about the first six months of her life. You wouldn't think that would be a super big deal, but it was. As an infant's brain develops, they are a literal sponge of their environment, constantly soaking up sights and sounds of everything around them. As a result of Emma's hearing loss, she doesn't always pronounce things correctly because even though she is seven now, some things still get somewhat garbled as they come in through her ears and go out through her mouth.
One night last week we had some friends over for dinner. If you have children and company comes over, you know things are going to get out of hand. Well, getting Emma to eat anything takes an absolute act of Congress, getting her to eat something she doesn't want to eat...that's a whole different disaster in the making. Jeff had grilled steaks and veggies--zucchini and yellow squash to be exact. Emma simply stared blankly at her plate. She nibbled at her steak (we told her it was "chicken"). I told her if she wanted a brownie, she would have to take a bite, just one bite of her zucchini. She looked at me, looked around the table, smiled with the face of an angel, and said "But I don't like bizzini." The table erupted into fits of laughter.
You see, Emma heard something completely different than anyone else at the table. Naturally, my mind began to circle back to the Book. There were several people in the Bible who heard things differently than other people. Who? And why? For starters, God created each one of us in such a unique fashion than no two of us are exactly the same therefore we will each learn in very different and unique ways. Take Moses for example: God spoke to him through a burning bush (see Exodus chapter 3). Then there was the prophet Elijah, he witnessed a terrible wind, an earthquake and an awesome fire waiting for the voice of God. But God wasn't in any of those things. God spoke to Elijah through a whisper (see 1 Kings 19:10-13). Then we move ahead to the New Testament, we see God speaking in some powerful ways through His disciples. After Jesus was resurrected from the dead and taken into heaven He sent His Holy Spirit to enable His disciples to speak to the people in ways they would understand. This is a most awesome ability. In the book of Acts, chapter 2 the disciples are addressing a huge crowd from "every nation under heaven...[they] came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language." Acts 2:5-6
Just because we hear something different than someone sitting beside us, doesn't make it wrong. God speaks to each one of us in a language that only we can understand. Only He knows us intimately enough to know which words will make the most sense...or if in fact, it is a word at all. Sometimes God flexes that mighty muscle and shows up in a burning bush or massive earthquake. Other times, He is on the most gentle of a breeze. So, what happened with Emma and her bizzini? We've learned through the years, that dinner guests who have children of their own don't spook nearly as easy or fast as those who don't. Naturally, Andy speared the Great Bizzini with her fork, launched into a very good impression of an Italian restauranteur (complete with the backward hand wave) and got her to take the one required bite. Dinner and a show, who knew?! The rest of us were laughing so hard, it's wonder no one choked! Let me ask you, what is your "bizzini" this week? Listen closely. God moves in unexpected ways. Have a blessed week.
"They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts," Acts 2:46
"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." Julia Child
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