To make an apt answer is a joy to anyone, and a word in season, how good it is!
—Proverbs 15:23

We know how astonished we are when we have been laboring over some confusion, or trying to make some decision, or attempting to resolve some troubling issue, and someone says a few words to us that make it possible for us to move forward.

It is as if their words dropped out of the sky. It is as if the person could see what we could not see, or discern what we could not discern. We heave a huge sigh and feel gratitude relieving our parched spirits, like water plumping up a dry sponge.  Later, we wonder how this person could give such sage advice when they weren’t even deeply involved in our set of circumstances. We may even wonder if God somehow told them what to say. “A word in season, how good it is!”

Our souls have been created with the capacity for bearing words of good news to others. We are spiritually programmed to offer from the stores of our inner selves, the words from heaven that bind, that heal, that clarify, that lift others up. Our souls are prepared to give a word in season, yet we can miss doing so simply because we are so self-absorbed or inattentive.

The wisdom from heaven waits to drop on us like rain in spring.  When we want our souls to be drenched in that wisdom, we need only be quiet and observant to each moment that is before us. Those who practice awareness in the moment find that giving a word in season and even hearing a word in season is natural and effortless. Wrestling with the past or fantasizing about the future stops our powers of observation, and the words from heaven often go unnoticed. 

So, stop right now. Be still. Let the drops from heaven fall gently on you.

Gracious God, let me hear and speak only those words that bind up and heal.