The String That Answered Back

When twelve-year-old Maya Chen first noticed it during a Tuesday afternoon lesson in her teacher's studio on West 72nd Street, she stopped mid-bow. A faint hum was coming from somewhere inside her cello — not the note she was playing, but something else, something underneath.

"There it is again," she told her teacher, Mrs. Petrov. "It keeps doing that."

Mrs. Petrov smiled. She had been waiting for this moment. "Play that open G again," she said. Maya drew the bow across the string. And there it was — the D string, untouched, vibrating on its own.

"That is sympathetic resonance," Mrs. Petrov explained. "When you play one string at the right frequency, another string answers. The instrument is responding to you. It has been doing this since your first lesson. You are only now learning to hear it."

Maya had heard it before — maybe dozens of times. She just never knew what it was.

In the temple at Shiloh, young Samuel heard a voice calling his name three times in the darkness. Each time he ran to Eli, certain the old priest had spoken. It took a mentor's wisdom to help him recognize what was already happening: the Lord was calling, and the instrument of Samuel's life was already resonating in response. He only needed someone to say, "The next time you hear it, answer: Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."

Sometimes God's voice has been sounding in our lives longer than we realize. We just need someone to help us name it.