Someone Is Listening

My husband walked into the kitchen.
I ordered something, he said quite pleased with himself.
I ordered an Echo Dot to go with our sound system.
I got an email; they were having a great deal, he said.

My husband is an engineer and enjoys things with bells and whistles.
Me, not so much.
My son and his wife have an Echo.
They enjoy using it.

I remember when our son sent all of us a short video message.
He and his wife received the Echo as a wedding gift.
My son was relaxing on the sofa and waggled his eyebrows in the direction of the Echo.
He gave the command and his music began to play.

He controlled the volume and the song selection with his voice.
I was impressed.
It was not something I ever wanted to buy for our house.
But the, they had a great deal, email seemed to win out.

The email stated that the Echo Dot was now integrated with our sound system.
I received the email as well.
I deleted it and it went to my trash folder.
I was just not interested.

My husband and I were invited to our neighbors’ house for dinner this summer.
I saw an Echo on a side table.
Our host suggested that I tell Alexa what music to play.
That was the first time I had ever used this technology.

When I was put on the spot and asked to choose any song I wanted, I went blank.
I absolutely love music but at that moment so many possibilities went through my head.
I had been listening to an artist that day in the car and chose him.
Instantaneously, at my command, the artist’s songs were shuffled and played.

As our host was talking and demonstrating it to us, he had to say, Alexa, before any command.
On command, Alexa gave the weather, sport scores, and miles from our location to Europe.
I was amazed.
I was a bit unsettled as well.

We discussed the personification of a machine.
We discussed talking to a machine rather than do the job or find the information ourselves.
Even in our discussion, whenever Alexa was said, it lit up and was ready to respond.
The voice activated machine was given the pronoun, she.

The fact that Alexa responds to our commands means she is always listening, our host said.
I could not get my head around the technology.
It made for some interesting discussion.
We discussed privacy issues and a feeling that Big Brother was listening to us.

Alexa kept interrupting our conversation whenever our host even said, Alexa.
Our host had to change the name in our discussion so that Alexa would not interrupt.
I was not sure how I felt about Alexa.
I really had no desire to have one in our house.

I ordered an Echo Dot to go with our sound system.
I got an email; they were having a great deal.
It was done.
The Echo Dot would be arriving in a few days.

It came in the mail.
My husband could not wait to open it and set it up.
The App had to be installed on my phone.
My husband went through more hoops than I would have had patience to go through.

He commanded Alexa to give us the weather.
He commanded Alexa to give us the time.
He commanded Alexa to tell us who our Philadelphia football team was playing on the weekend.
He commanded Alexa to play my Apple music.

Alexa was unable to do that.
The email led him to believe that the Echo Dot was integrated with our sound system now.
However, the integration is not complete yet.
Alexa can do the other things my husband commanded; playing my music is not one of them.

When I checked the App on my phone, I saw that everything my husband asked was there.
The text of every test question was there to read.
Not only was the voice recognition in place but a record of everything was there on my phone.
When I researched it a bit, there is no way to turn that feature off.

Every conversation, every question is recorded.
I remembered the Big Brother reference when we were at dinner that night.
Even now, if I said Alexa, the Echo Dot would light up, ready to respond.
I find it disconcerting; I think it will be moved to my husband’s office instead.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (1 John 5:14,15)

Voice recognition is an amazing thing.
Alexa is a machine.
It is very mechanical, robotic, and impersonal.
There is no heart involved; there is no emotion.

God the Father always listens for our voice.
We can sigh without using any words at all and He will hear us; He will understand.
We do not have to make sure we say a specific word first in order to be heard.
God the Father hears our heart even if we do not utter any syllable at all.

Technology is amazing.
It changes in leaps and bounds.
No matter how incredible technology is, it can never completely imitate the One who hears.
Our Creator God hears the voice of His children.

Our Heavenly Father delights in hearing the voice of His children.
We do not command God to do things for us, or command Him to answer our questions.
We come to Him in humility and simply ask.
There is no formula in the way we ask, only that we come to Him.

We do not have to say a certain word to get God the Father’s attention.
We do have to end our conversation with a name, however.
When we ask anything according to His will, we ask in the name of His Son, Jesus.
When we ask in Jesus’ name, we know that we are heard; we know that God is listening.