By Linda Porter Carlyle
Trevor Paul Monroe eyed the papers and pencils in Pastor Chuck’s hands. Pastor Chuck was going to make them write something. He just knew it. Well, at least he could be pretty sure Pastor Chuck wouldn’t ask them to do any math in Sabbath School. Trevor was done with math. He was not even going to think about math until school started again in September.
“Our lesson this week is about how God gently whispers to each of us,” Pastor Chuck said. He began to pass the paper and pencils to the boys and girls. “I want each of you to think of how God has whispered to you. To you personally. How has God softly told you that He loves you?”
Oh, dear! Trevor thought. His stomach tightened. God had never whispered to him. He didn’t have anything to write down. He was probably the only kid in the whole class God hadn’t whispered to. How embarrassing! He wished he were home in bed with a fever and spots.
Trevor slowly took the paper and pencil Pastor Chuck handed him.
“God whispers to all of our hearts every day,” Pastor Chuck said. “Sometimes we can be too busy to listen to Him. Sometimes we don’t really think that He is talking to us. But the good thing is we can learn to listen for God’s voice. We can learn to hear it.
“I’m going to set the buzzer here for five minutes,” he went on. “I want each of you to write down as many ways as you can think of in those five minutes that God has whispered to you. Any questions? OK, you may begin.”
Trevor closed his eyes. He had absolutely nothing to write down. He had a wild thought that if he kept his eyes shut and couldn’t see Pastor Chuck, maybe Pastor Chuck would not call on him when the five minutes were up.
Trevor heard pencils scratching on paper. He heard a bird tweet outside the window and a motorcycle roar down the street. He could hear his own heart beat.
His own heart! Suddenly Trevor remembered Dad’s telling him that it is God who keeps every person’s heart beating. Trevor opened his eyes in surprise at a new thought. That must mean God was whispering to him with every heartbeat. I made you. I love you. I made you. I love you.
Trevor smiled. He began to write.
Hannah eagerly took the paper Pastor Chuck handed her. She knew one thing she could write down without even having to think about it. Baby Paulo! Hannah had prayed, and prayed, and prayed for Mama to have a baby. And finally she had! And every time Hannah held baby Paulo and looked at his tiny hands and feet, and his drooly chin, and his happy dark brown eyes, she could hear God whisper to her. I love you so much that I picked out this perfect baby brother just for you!
Mac, too, already had something in mind before she even got her piece of paper. “God whispered to me to stop,” she wrote carefully in her very best cursive handwriting. She stared across the room, remembering. Just yesterday she had been riding her bike to the market for Mom. She usually just whizzed along the sidewalk past where a little alley came out from behind a row of houses. But yesterday she had slowed down and stopped before crossing the alley. And just then, a car going much too fast burst out of the alley right in front of her. If she hadn’t stopped, it might have hit her! God must have whispered to her to stop. And she had listened.
Joseph chewed on the end of the pencil Pastor Chuck gave him until he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to do that. He looked up quickly, hoping that Pastor Chuck hadn’t noticed. Then he bent his head and began to write. “God whispers to me when I wash dishes.” Joseph had heard G.M. say it so many times that now it just echoed in his brain. “Washing the dishes is like hearing God say, I love you. I forgive you. I can clean you up.” Joseph grinned to himself. God whispered that to him a lot because he washed dishes practically every day.
The buzzer screeched. Joseph jumped. Pastor Chuck reached to turn it off. He grinned at the class. “OK. That’s five minutes,” he said. “Who would like to be the first one to share some way that God has whispered to you?”
Trevor’s hand shot up in the air.
