“Mama!” His 7-year-old voice was frantic amidst the pressing crowd. “MAMA!”

“Musa!” My friend’s voice immediately responded, above the clamoring street noise, matching her son’s intensity with her own cry, “我在这里!” I am here.

As their eyes fell upon each other, panic melted into peace. Grasping hands once again, there was renewed safety as we crossed the crowded pedestrian bridge to continue shopping. Musa clung tightly to his mother’s side, determined not to venture off in his playfulness again.

A vulnerable lost sheep, in desperate search for his beloved shepherd, Musa had confidence in knowing his shepherd’s voice. He trusted that when he cried out, he would hear a response and could find refuge in the presence of his shepherd once again.

In the mundane and in the full-of-drama weeks and months that Jesus invested in his disciples, He longed for them to know and to trust in His voice in the same way that Musa knew and trusted in his mother’s. Once they had developed confidence in His voice, full of grace and truth, they would always be able to return to Him, even when His presence was no longer tangible.

“His sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4b)

By definition in the Oxford Dictionary, “to listen” means to give one’s attention to, to be alert and ready to hear something, or to take notice of and act on what someone says.

Henri Nouwen explains in A Spirituality of Living that “the word listen in Latin is audire. If we listen with full attention in which we are totally geared to listen, it’s called ob-audire, and that’s where the word obedience comes from. Jesus is the obedient one. That means he is total ear, totally open to the love of God. And if we are closed, and to the degree that we are closed, we are surdus. That is the Latin word for deaf. The more “deaf” we get, the more absurdus.”

May we be counted among those following the example of Jesus in being “total ear,” as we listen with full attention and obey the Voice of our Good Shepherd.