“My sheep hear my voice,” says the Lord;  “I know them, and they follow me.” // Alleluia Verse from John 10:27

I open the door just as she ducks under water. She knows her time in the pool is up, but perhaps I will give up and return inside. It has never worked before. I wait in the doorway, neglectfully letting the cool air out to mix with the sweltering summer heat. In my mind I hear the voices of my own parents saying, “Stop air conditioning the neighborhood.” 

Calling to her underwater is useless. She will ignore the muffled directives just as I did in my own Arizona childhood. Any motion by the door would cause us to flee to the bottom of the pool or take off swimming laps just so that we could have a few more minutes in the water. 

And so I stand and wait until she surfaces, and she can hear me clearly.

 “It’s time. Come on in.”  

She knew what I was going to say before I said it, just as I knew she would try to pretend she couldn’t hear me before I even opened the door. And I realize I do the same thing.

Even as an adult, there are times when I pretend I don’t hear My Father clearly. In other situations I simply stay underwater so that I can’t hear His voice. Maybe if I don’t hear the instructions clearly, I won’t have to do that hard thing I know He desires of me. 

But He knows me. He knows my heart just as I know His voice. And even when it is muffled, or when I doubt the message, when I take it to prayer, the answers are clear. He will wait for me patiently. He will call to me in the depths. He will call me out of the waters.

Can you hear the Lord clearly or are you ducking into the deep? What in your life is muffling his voice?