From Deep Within

T

he first time I visited a museum I was in elementary school.  The museum was located in our county seat and boasted a rather nice display of plants, animals, and various exhibits about the different trees found in our area.  But the best part was a small black room which became my backyard as the lighted dome faded away into night and the stars came out.  Although it was the middle of the day outside, it was night inside as the stars rose and comets flashed across the dome. This first visit to a museum also introduced me to the planetarium, a place I love to visit to this day.

A few years later, my mom and dad took my brother and me to New England.  One of my uncles was in the navy and was stationed in Rhode Island.  I had never been north before so the idea of traveling “way up there” excited me.  On the way, there were several first experiences in my life.  It was the first time I had ever seen a tollbooth, it was the first time I had ever gone under a river in a tunnel, it was the first time I had ever crossed an expansion bridge, and it was the first time I had ever visited our nation’s capital.

One of the most exciting things on that trip was the Smithsonian Institute.  Yep, another museum!  But what a museum this turned out to be.  Whole buildings were dedicated to just one type of exhibit.  There was the Air and Space Museum, my personal favorite where I saw, not only the Wright Brother’s airplane that had flown in my home state of North Carolina, but also the command module for the Apollo 11 mission that put Neil Armstrong on the moon.  I watched the moon landing live so you can imagine how pumped I was to actually see the command module that took the astronauts there.

The next building we visited was the museum of natural science.  In this building were huge skeletons from dinosaurs and a huge Mastodon, complete with fur and tusks.  Just inside the door were headphones you could rent to learn more about the exhibits.  As I approached each exhibit, the headphones picked up a radio signal from deep inside the display and played the information directly into my ears.  What a neat toy this was!  The same thing happened when I approached a blue whale, and other exhibits in the museum.  The transmitter, embedded inside the animals, could not be seen but they could be heard.  From deep within the heart of the exhibits came the full explanation of what they were like.

Would it surprise you to learn that Jesus alluded to this very concept over two thousand years ago?  Long before the radio transmitter or the headset receiver, Jesus explained that by listening to a person, you knew exactly what he or she was like.  Let’s look at a brief passage of scripture that explains this important biblical truth.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus says, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”  The last sentence in this passage is the truth Jesus wanted his listeners to understand. 

As with the Mastodon at the Smithsonian, I could only hear what the exhibit was transmitting to my ears.  In the same way, when we speak, and we can speak volumes, we communicate what we’ve stored in our hearts.  The essence of who we are, our character, is displayed for everyone to see.  So when people listen to us, what they hear is a direct link to our hearts and they know what we are filled with.  Jesus said the mouth speaks from the heart’s overflow.  In order for the heart to overflow, it must first be filled and the words we use and the actions we perform directly reflect the contents of our hearts.

This is a sobering thought, isn’t it?  As soon as our mouths are open, our hearts are revealed.  Even when we don’t speak, the decisions we make, the friends with whom we surround ourselves, and the actions we perform tell everyone around us what we believe, what and where our priorities are, and what we value most in life.  From deep within, our true character shines forth.  What message are you sending today?