22nd August 2018

“Are your ears burning?” What a funny expression to describe the phenomenon that is felt by someone when another person is speaking about them, at a distance, with either flattery or criticism. Whether the experience is merely fictional or truly physiological, who knows? Some have wondered if it’s due to blushing in the overhearing of a compliment. Others have thought it due to the exertions of the ear in straining to catch a conversation.

But could there be a more welcome heat on the ears than in that picture drawn by the young Scotsman, Robert Murray McCheyne, in his musings on the intercession of Christ. Stirring his heart to be more prayerful, he wrote: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million of enemies. Yet distance makes no difference; He is praying for me.”

McCheyne’s logic is neither fanciful nor flawed, and therefore I should have no hesitation to take the same line of thought, and to take heart to put my heart into giving all my heart to God. And then maybe that experience on the road to Emmaus might also come to pass. Said two of the Lord’s disciples on that resurrection afternoon when their ears were full of prophecy and their eyes were full of proof: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” O Lord, be pleased to grant more heat on the ears and more fire in the heart.

DM 22^nd August 2018