When my friend drove to the parcel delivery depot to pick up his much-anticipated order of 11 goslings, he should have left his phone at home.

Soon after he safely buckled that box of goslings into his passenger seat, his phone rang, and he talked with a good friend the entire 20-minute ride home.

While he thought he was simply engaging in light-hearted banter with his old buddy, to the goslings, something much more significant was happening, as, word by word, my friend's voice became imprinted on those very impressionable young minds.

This was discovered soon after, when these goslings began following my friend all over his yard. And today, years later, even though they have heard hundreds of voices in the interim, when they hear his voice, they start squawking and talking back to him.

And just as my friend's voice is imprinted upon their souls, so is God's voice imprinted upon ours.

We see it in action as people put handmade posters of encouragement in their front windows, chalk drawings on their sidewalks, and donate to charity when their own financial stability is shaky.

We know God's voice, and it's a voice of mission. 

God is on a mission to restore humanity to a place of peace and wholeness. And you and I are called to be part of that mission, regardless of plague, pestilence, war, or any other kind of instability.

And listening for that voice is our challenge. 

While you and I are surrounded by competing voices that speak danger, worry, and self-interest, we are called to put those aside and listen deeply for God's words, impressed so deeply on our souls. 

And God’s voice says; we are doing better than we think, we are touching more people than we know, we are not alone no matter where we are, and that things will ultimately turn out OK.

The Christian journey is: our constant effort to return to that which is deepest within us: God’s imprint of shalom.

May we follow that voice because we know it.