

species-Strix-varia-4As I was jogging early this morning, before the dawn of time, there were a pair of owls hooting to each other. As you know, this animal does most of its hunting at night. How in the world do they find anything in the dark? Curious, I did a little research on owls:

“An owl uses unique, sensitive ears to locate prey by listening for prey movements through ground cover such as leaves, foliage, or even snow. When a noise is heard, the owl is able to tell its direction because of the minute time difference in which the sound is perceived in the left and right ear – for example, if the sound was to the left of the owl, the left ear would hear it before the right ear. The owl then turns its head so the sound arrives at both ears simultaneously – then it knows the prey is right in front of it. Owls can detect a left/right time difference of about 0.00003 seconds (30 millionths of a second!)” theowlpages.com

Jump back! Are you kidding me?! A 30 millionth of a second! That is some very keen hearing. Some of you may know that I suffer from acute tinnitus, ringing in the ears. Hearing does not come easy for me. So when I read about an animal that can hear with such accuracy, I can’t help but be amazed.

I can live with dull hearing; it may be inconvenient, but it doesn’t really affect my quality of life. What I cannot live with is dullness of the heart. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament warn us that we can become so dull in our “seeing and hearing” that we miss the grace of God. According to Ezekiel, it is the result of rebelling against God which hardens our hearts.

Ezekiel 12:2 (NIV)


Mark 8:17-18 (NIV)


Jesus ends this section with a very pertinent question, “Don’t you remember?” That is to say, the reason you fail to see and hear is because you have failed to remember something. You have forgotten the power of God that you experienced first hand. What power was that? In this case, when Jesus fed the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread. But all through scripture we see God’s mighty hand at work proving time and again that he is the Lord of all things.

To ignore the power of God is, in a sense, a form of rebellion, refusing to hear even though we have the ability. How do we ignore God? What are some things we do that show God that we don’t value what he has to say? Do we listen when he speaks?

As you work through this day, pay careful attention to what God may be saying to you.

My mug is up, how about yours?

All verse quotes courtesy of biblegateway.com