Isaiah 42:20 “He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.”

On occasion it is brought to my attention that I am not the most observant person.  My husband recently asked me the color of one of our friend houses and it took me a full day to come to an agreement within myself as to what color it really is.  I go there several times a year, I park in their driveway and yet the color of the house eluded me at first.  Someone will ask me if I noticed the outfit on a person or the color of their hair and I didn’t even see the person much less any of the detail of them.  Then there is my hearing.  A couple of years ago I actually went to get my hearing checked because I needed to make sure I wasn’t losing my hearing.  The good news was my hearing is just fine.  The bad news is that I still do not hear well, especially on the phone.  I suspect this is, in part, that I am not able to listen well.  There are the physical distractions like my children or the noise around me but I suspect the noise in my head and the distractions in my mind do not help either.  Needless to say, this verse in Isaiah broke through all that blindness and deafness to remind me to observe and to truly listen.

Lord,

Open my eyes to the point of being truly observant.  Open my ears and tune them in to truly listen.  Let us all look and listen so that we see and hear you in our midst today.  Thank you for breaking through to us, for always being there when we finally turn to you, seeing and hearing you after all.  Amen.