No voice to cry

August, 2004

He had no voice...

No way to cry out...

Stuck behind the walls of his prison

... with no way of escape!

Locked in his own voiceless inability,

Void of a way to cry out or to make a sound.

The only thing he was able to do was scratch frantically
on the walls that surrounded him.

Jailed.

Imprisoned.

Held captive.

Shut up.

Confined.

Locked in.

Penned.

- inside his dark penitentiary.

Constrained.

Incarcerated.

Limited.

Unable.

Incapable.

Incompetent.

Enclosed.

Caged!

Fenced!

Enveloped!

Hedged!

Hemmed!

Walled!

He had had no water for days,

just as many since he had eaten.

His stomach was sunken,

His eyes glazed,

His strength quickly turning into total weakness...

Powerlessness enveloped him!

Hopelessness surrounded him!

Buried in despair and desperation!

Hidden and holed in his horror!

Inside total darkness!
Alone!

Needing someone to cry out for him

- to run and to go get his master!

Himself - completely unable to mutter a sound.

Locked behind his walls ---

and his own powerlessness to voice it.

Yet someone had heard his scratches -

his feeble attempts to get out.

Though the boy that heard was unable by himself to unbar the bars that barred him.

The boy's strength alone could not break down the walls that walled him.

So he ran.

He ran to do the only thing that he could.

He was not able to - but he knew that one that was!

So he ran.

He ran to get his master.

The master had already heard the prisoner's cries.

Not one drop of those tears cried had fallen on deaf ears and been shed in vain;

they had reached the ears of their master!

And so had the tears of the boy that was crying out for him.

The master's ears were tuned to hear both the voiceless sound and the vocal one.

And now, he paid extra heed to the cries of the young boy crying out for the one held behind bars.

At the heed of the cries, the master ran with tears of joy in his own eyes

- for at last his lost

had now been found!

No wall is too high,

No fence too tall,

No bar too strong,

To hold its wall.

And the master ran....

A hammer would work!

A hammer and the pure determined strength of his hands!

As he angrily pulled to tear away the things that bound the one that belonged to him.

At last --- finding him there,

Lying lifeless and still in his weakness;

his master lifted him to himself,

The tender tears from his heart falling on the weak.

With scarcely the energy to drink

his master poured the water over his mouth,

In order that some of the drops would find their way in.

There was hardly a crawl left in him.

He barely could open his eyes.

Weak though they were

he squinted one tiny look at his master.

No words were said to the audible ear

- but his small look of gratitude spoke volumes!

His master nursed him back to health,

- one day at a time -

until he was strong again.

Then sent him out again in a spacious place -

to do what he was created and left here for to do.

Free this time - from the walls that once bound -

For he had been lost - but now he is found.

The imprisoned guy above in the story, his name was George. George belongs to my sister. George is a ferret. He had climbed up into the attic and fallen behind a wall in their barn. He had been missing for days and they had looked everywhere to no avail, they couldn't find him. My sister panicked in knowing his helplessness in being able to defend and protect himself. But what concerned her the most was in knowing that he had no voice to cry out in his need. My sister was frantic, they had searched and searched and searched, and after three days her son heard the bare sounds of his exhausted scratches behind a wall, But try as her son might he couldn't find a way in to get him. So he did what any child would do, he ran to get his mama. She took off to the rescue as soon as she heard, found a hammer and knocked the hole in the wall through which she reached her hands in to save him.

Sherry told me later, "George is so dependant on me! He has no way, no way, no audible way to call out to me! He has absolutely no voice!" For a ferret is a creature created with no way to cry out. She was going crazy in her panic trying to find him. She searched frantically for him everywhere. No thing was left unturned in her search, and they weren't about to give up. The whole family was searching for him - and sick at his lostness!

She said, "You don't realize how he much depends on me - he depends on me for everything! I have to feed him. I have to give him water. I have to take care of him. I have to keep his cage clean. I have to keep him safe. I have to watch him carefully so he won't get hurt or get lost. He depends on me for everything!"

She told me that when they found him, "He knew where the door was. He was scratching hysterically on the door, he just wasn't able to open it!"

Do you know what that reminds me of?

God tells us that "to him who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matthew7:8). He hears our knocks - or our scratches if that is all that we have left inside us! He hears our knocks. And He Himself runs to the door to open it. If you'll remember the story, the father saw his prodigal son "while he was still a LONG way off" (had to mean He was watching!) He ran to meet him (Luke15:15-24;)! He also used a hammer and some nails - in His manner to rescue (Colossians2:14). And as with the picture we see here of George, we can see how God also responds not only to the voice of the one caught in their prison of sin, but He listens and heeds to the cries of others that cry out to Him in our inadequacy to cry ourselves where we're trapped there (ex: Psalm106:20-23 / Psalm106:28-31).

Sometimes we are so bound in our prisons that in our entanglement we are lost in our voiceless inability to cry out on our own; and we need the cries of another to call out to our Father to help us where we are (1John5:16) (1Samuel12:23). We need someone to run to go get Him. And we are to God, what Sherry said the ferret is to her, so totally dependant upon HIM! We need Him for E-V-E-R-Y THING!

Can you hear just Him say of us as my sister said of her ferret, "She's so dependant on ME! You don't realize how she depends on Me. She depends on Me for everything!" For He indeed IS all of our need (Psalm23)!

"Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of Your love; in Your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide Your face from Your servant; answer me; redeem me because of my foes..... I am in pain and distress; may Your salvation, O God, protect me. I will praise God's name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD more than an ox... The poor will see and be glad -- you who seek God, may your hearts live! the LORD hears the needy and does not despise His captive people..." ... "I love the LORD, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy.... The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The LORD portects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, He saved me" (Ps 69:16-18, 29-33; 116:1,5-6).

(Sharon Lee © August 2004)