Listen Carefully

Ezekiel 3:10

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹⁰ Next He said to me: “Son of man, listen carefully to all My words that I speak to you and take them to heart.

With a group of friends and family members, I was walking down the trail from the parking lot to Barker Dam on a Sabbath afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park. The trail runs through gigantic granite boulders on both sides just inviting us to try our skills in climbing them. We were aiming for some other gigantic boulders on the far side of the dam, still a quarter of a mile ahead of us.

A family with several kids below the age of ten came past us on their way back to the parking lot. One little fellow as he was walking by me called out to his father, “Dad, what are those goats doing on the rock?” Used to a thousand questions a day, the father said, “I don’t know son! Let’s just keep walking.” He didn’t look up; he just kept plodding along staring at the dusty trail.

I turned and looked up in the direction the kid was pointing to the rocks over my right shoulder. In a slot on this great boulder about 100 feet above us stood five magnificent desert big horn sheep. Big horn sheep are rare enough in Joshua Tree, and they’re almost non-existent where lots of people are.

Stepping off the trail across from the boulder, I stopped. “Hey guys, There are big horn sheep above us!” I called. Those of my group still in earshot stopped and came back to where I stood. Strangers on the trail turned, looked, and stopped. Everyone with a camera was having a field day.

The sheep all ignored us completely. They browsed on some of the few bushes in the cut and watched us idly. After all this was a national park, they were on the edge of a cliff a hundred feet above us, and they felt totally safe. They didn’t even seem annoyed by the noise all of us were making.

I stood there in awe and feasted my eyes on them. What a treat to see something so grand and alive in this desolate desert! For 20 minutes or so I remained entranced. Occasionally I took a picture, but mainly I just stood there enjoying the peace and joy of a loving God’s handiwork.

I couldn’t help thinking about how much the father of that little boy missed because he was not listening to what his child was saying. All of us, as parents, have missed some marvelous moments because we weren’t listening to what our children said.

Lord, how much have we missed because we weren’t listening carefully to what You were saying to us?