Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door.

In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.

I remember being on Lake Zurich, a city and lake Northwest of Chicago. A good friend of mine showed me where the ice houses were in the early 1900’s. Horses and wagons would haul the blocks of ice to the train stop where they would be taken to stores in Chicago.

One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile.

A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.

“I closed the door,” the boy replied, “lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.”

Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear. Yes, Jesus assures us that our heavenly Father always listens to us, but do we really listen to God?

Do we follow the instructions of Psalm 46, “Be still, and know that I am God”?

Thanks to Eric S. Ritz for sharing.

When was the last time YOU were still enough to know that God is God?

STRESS MAKES YOU BELIEVE THAT EVERYTHING HAS TO HAPPEN RIGHT NOW. PRAYER REASSURES YOU THAT EVERYTHING WILL HAPPEN IN GOD’S TIME!