Imagine yourself standing on the side of a road. A car goes slowly past. After the car has gone by, there is the soft reflection of sound in it’s passing. It’s very soft and growing softer as the vehicle passes on. Do we notice? In Exodus 33:21-23 Moses stood in the cleft of the rock and the glory of God passed by and i’m fairly certain there was the soft echo in the wake of God’s passing by.
Sound. There is a wide variation of sound, some heard in our ears, some felt in our body, some heard only in our spirit for those who have ears to hear. In Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, over time, we learn to discern if we hear and what we hear. We pray, “Lord, give us “ears to hear””, with “ears to hear” used approximately 8 times in 3 gospel narratives by Jesus. So, it’s not just if we hear, but what we hear, and learning to recognize what we hear is a continual learning process starting at birth.
The word of God is like that. Many times we see or hear the Word of the Lord and the area around us stays resonant after the moment of encounter has passed. Like in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “no eye has seen nor ear heard“. The Greek verbs “seen” and “heard” are very special and have no sense of tense of past, present or future, meaning once seen and once heard, the voice of the Lord does not cease being seen or heard, and having heard and seen the echoes of His purposes they stick to us. There is the sound we make and then the sound after the sound called an echo.
In our hearing we need to catch all of what God is saying, not just hearing the immediate words in the moment but also the sound made after the sound as the moment or vision moves away from us. Be a noticer. Did you know our actions also have sound in the Spirit, leaving behind traces of God’s goodness in places others don’t necessarily see, but we can rest assured the oil of anointing is left in our wake?
As example, being merciful to someone who is lost without Jesus. On that day in that moment, we may practice mercy by sitting and listening and then go our way thinking the moment is past, but no, there is an echo like a sticky reverberance which stays with the person and next week, or next month. They’ll remember the mercy which visited them that day, or should i better say that God brings the moment back to them by giving it to them to remember. It is like a soft echo which God keeps bringing back to them.
Friends, subtle echoes, like soft light, weave through our lives, faint reverberations of moments, emotions, or ideas that linger just beyond conscious grasp. We may not notice, but they are there. i heard a man say once, “The echo of small kindnesses is real. People may not remember, but when we are kind it sticks to people around us and leaves an echo in their head and heart.” Those echoes are like soft whispers, a fleeting fragrance that recalls a forgotten place, or the quiet resonance of a conversation long past. These echoes are not loud or demanding; they exist in the margins, shaping our perceptions with delicate persistence.
Remember autumn days as a child. We are not physically there any longer but those memories are like the rustle of leaves, the soft tumble of a stream or the way a bird’s call bounces around in the woods. The moments echo in us. Ephesians 4:32, ““And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.””
Goodness, kindness, mercy, hospitality, forbearance, and long suffering, to name a few, generate echoes in ourselves and the lives around us. We are not alone.
Colossians 3:12, ““Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering.”
The Lord is God and is called the “all in all” in Ephesians 1:23, making it so nothing exists in isolation — every sound, every action, ripples outward, influencing the world in ways we may never fully trace. A single word spoken in kindness can echo through someone’s life, altering their choices years later, while a moment of cruelty might reverberate in unseen wounds. In art, subtle echoes are deliberate. A painter might repeat a shade of blue across a canvas, tying varying elements into a cohesive whole. Mark 4:32 mentions birds which rest and make their nests in the “shade of a tree” with the shade indirectly calling us to take note of the profound rest found in Christ alone. In literature, echoes are like a recurring theme — a clock ticking in a quiet room — the sound subtly underscores keynotes of time or mortality without stating them outright. Music, too, thrives on echoes like soft light: a faint reprise of a melody inspires nostalgia or longing, stirring emotions that words alone cannot capture. Yet, there are other echoes, like a faint pang of regret, the shadow of a lost opportunity, or the quiet ache of unexpressed love — these are echoes of “what might have been”. They linger, not as bold declarations but as soft reminders of life and God life in our lives. To notice the Holy Spirit’s subtle echoes is to align ourselves with Kingdom life in quiet places, as in 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Noticing the gentle footsteps of God is like an echo that the King has passed and nothing will be the same, they teach us to listen, to pause, to recognize the interconnectedness of all things. In their gentleness, they carry profound truths, waiting for those who are quiet in heart and mind enough to hear and see.
Echoes of our daily life in Christ are also like soft light, a gentle and diffused illumination, they softly transform spaces and moods making our works of mercy to become an even glow.
One time i was at the Post Office and there was a long line. It was a cold wet day and everyone looked disgruntled and openly complained as to how long it was taking. All groaning and complaining. When i got to the front of the line i looked behind me and there, about 10 people back, was a very old little man who appeared barely able to walk much less stand. Suddenly, an idea floated across my mind, “Why don’t you trade places with him?” So i invited him to take my place and i took his, which we did while everyone in the room noticed. Yes, i noticed the entire room was watching almost in a breathless pause. You know, i felt pleasure at extending kindness to the fellow. As i stood in the now back of the line, it bears repeating that i saw that the entire room had been silently watching. The Holy Spirit then pointed out to me that the mood of the room had entirely changed, all from a single act of kindness. The room of 20+ uncomfortable, disgruntled, complaining people changed at the spark of the kindness of God being acted out in front of them. They, as a whole, suddenly become smiling, conversational, and engaging, in a good way. It was true, i saw it with my own eyes, the echo of small kindnesses was real. People may not remember, but when we are kind it sticks to people around us, it leaves a Holy Spirit echo in their head and heart, and a soft illumination that the Kingdom of God has come near that day.
1 John 3:18, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Living out our Kingdom life in Christ is as much about feet as it is about eyes and ears. Think about it.