A Million Voices

Psalm 88:1-2
Lord, you are the God who saves me;
    day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
    turn your ear to my cry.

Psalm 116:2
Because he turned his ear to me,
    I will call on him as long as I live.

They’re back.

Tim and I walked Rosie around a looping path at a local park. The birds chirped, but the cicadas trilled louder. This group of insects with a large voice had hibernated underground for seventeen years. Imagine going that long without speaking. Now they’ve emerged and they are letting us know. A body part called a tymbal lies under their wings. When they move their body in rapid succession, the tymbal clicks and produces the rattling sound that echoes across the yards and fields, sometimes in a deafening tone.

As we walked and I listened to the crusty creatures, I had to wonder how we sound to God when we pray. If you’ve ever been in a classroom of small children and they’re all talking at once, you understand the difficulty in listening and hearing each one’s voice.

Do we sound like cicadas to God’s ears? Each of us trilling our prayers?

Somehow, God discerns every one of our voices and he wants to hear from his children. He longs to connect with his people and receive our cries for mercy, our asks for healing, our rejoicing, and our sorrows. God listens to and hears every single voice of his beloved children as the Holy Spirit lifts our prayers to heaven and presents them to God.

When I hear the song of the cicadas, I’m reminded of the remarkable powers of God—how he can hear all the prayers at the same time, sort through them, and answer them.

God is simply amazing.

Continue to cry out to the Father who loves you more than anything.