Hear

We are living in times in which we need the Word of God to cut through, to bring important
instruction and clarity, to emerge out of confusion over the teaching of God's Word. John 16 says:
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

God's truth is clear, it is absolute, and it is powerful.  We have to be earnest seekers of the truth of God's Word.  We can be challenged to develop a working knowledge of Scripture, so that we can apply it in the circumstances that we encounter and so that we can be discerning in our walk with Him.  The Spirit of God clarifies and confirms the Word, and we can seek to be spiritual hearers, so that we might become accurate and effective doers of His Word.

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In Matthew 13, Jesus taught about the importance of "hearing" spiritually, understanding His truth, which is important for us as we seek to know and walk in the will of God:
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.'
16 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear...

Ayla Esler is a little girl who was born deaf - she is one year old and received a special gift recently.  Faithwire references the response that Ayla had to a cochlear implant.  The story says:

In a heartwarming video posted by the Cook Children’s Medical Cener [sic] in Fort Worth, the parents of Ayla Esler watch in awe as their baby daughter hears sounds for the first time after receiving cochlear implant surgery.

The child responded gleefully to the new sensation of sound - the article goes on to say, "Surrounded by her elder siblings and family, Ayla smiles and make sounds of joy, holding her hand up to her ear, indicating that she is picking up on the sounds."  Her mother, not surprisingly, was "overcome by emotion."

The Faithwire story references a report from the TV station, WFAA.  That story explained the process:

A child with a cochlear implant wears a receiver inside his or her ear and a sound processor – essentially a microphone – behind the ear or attached to his or her shirt. The processor picks up sounds or speech and converts it into “a special code” that is then transmitted to the receiver in the ear.

That code is then passed through the cochlea and ultimately to the brain for processing.

The story quotes a viewer, who posted the comment, “Rejoicing with you & your precious family!,” adding, “Ayla’s smile says it all.”

I think there are several lessons upon which we can think related to this story.  For one thing, we can certainly be thankful for what we have received.  Perhaps we can take a moment to recount the blessings that the Lord has shown to us and give Him praise: certainly the gift of salvation through Christ is something for which we can give God thanks.  And, we can pause to identify ways that we have seen Him at work.  We can be thankful for what we have, rather than complain about what we don't.  He is the giver of good gifts, and we can accept His gifts with gratitude.

Also, there's something to be said about the importance of hearing.  Physically, for sure. But, what about spiritual hearing?  There is a profound experience that occurs when we actually discover God's truth for our lives, when we read the Word and the Holy Spirit shows us something that is important - when we "hear" from the Lord.  We can develop spiritual sensitivity - discernment, so that we might be able to know what lines up with the Word of God and what does not.  There are ideas that are floating around that claim to be Scriptural, but when we examine more closely, they are not.  So we need to "hear" what God would teach us and identify concepts that do not line up.