The sparrow was sitting on top of a parking sign, pecking at the metal.

I was inside a local business, and I love birds, so I watched him for a while.

He started to look around, and his beak was frequently opening and closing.

I knew he was chirping, but I couldn’t hear him.

His head tilted too and fro, opening and closing his beak over and over.

I strained to hear him, but the sound of steady traffic passing just behind him was louder. The bubbling water near me was louder. The talking inside the business was louder.

Then, everything stilled for a couple of minutes.

Sweetly, faintly, I heard the sweet chirps coming out from his beak.

I smiled.

Immediately I had two thoughts.

First, how often I feel unheard. I’m expressing myself with all my heart, but no one can hear me. No one is really listening.

I know this isn’t true, though. God sees me crying out, and He hears my every plea – even the ones I can’t find the strength to speak aloud.

In Psalms it says this:

“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” – Psalm 116:1-2

He is always watching. Just like I watched that little sparrow, He was watching as well.

Then I suddenly realized the most important part for me …. Being still. Only then can I hear the still, small voice of God.

As long as I’m caught up in the business, the noise, the problems of others, I can’t hear Him.

I must get still. Quiet my inner dialogue. Settle. Then I can hear His voice.

I Kings 19:11-13 says:

^“11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire ^[a]a still small voice.”

There may be no apparent response to my cries.

Yet the God of the Universe is always attuned to them.

There are always distractions, always noise, there is always strife.

I can’t hear Him there.

I hear Him when I still myself, quiet my heart.

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” – Matthew 6:26

God is taking care of this house sparrow at a strip mall on a cloudy spring day.

How much more he cares for me!

How much more he hears me!