What Voice Will You Hear?

It’s hard sometimes to block out the voices of insecurity and fear and hear the voice of the Spirit in the grumblings of the world. But if you still your mind, and quiet your heart, the voices will come from the smallest, most unexpected places.

The unexpected voice I heard that day was hers. She’s a fiery, empathetic, worship-singing 8-year-old, and she calls me Auntie.

It was the week after Christmas when she handed me a gift that she found lodged deep within the tree branches, hidden by blinking lights and decorations. Her eyes twinkled with delight, and her body danced in anticipation as she handed the small wrapped box to me. Her energy was contagious as she watched patiently as I tore away the paper and pulled back the tissue paper, exposing the gift she had picked out for me.

Inside was a blue-eyed tchotchke wearing a flowing pink Disney princess-style ball gown, twirling as though dancing with her prince. Her blonde hair pulled back, exposing her neck and illuminating her rosy cheeks and expansive smile, exposing her perfectly white teeth.

“It’s you! She looks just like you! I wanted you to have her,” she shared excitedly as she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed with everything she had in her.

She had given her mother a tchotchke that “looked just like her” as well. Together they are perched on a shelf to spend their life together, exactly how she sees her mother and me.

It’s funny, really, how children see us. If only we could see ourselves as they do. With perfect smiles, happy eyes, and dancing carefree spirits…just as God created us.

It is her voice I hear when the devil creeps in with words of fear and insecurities. It’s the dancing princess in the Disney pink ball gown that reminds me I am made in the image of God and not with a heart of fear. It is the small, fiery voice of the 8-year-old and that calls me Auntie that whispers truth in my times of insecurities.

Whose voice do you hear that reminds you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made?

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Psalm 139: 13-14