My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 10:27 (ESV)
It’s one of the most famous trademarks of the 20th century: a dog, looking at a gramophone horn, head tilted quizzically as he peers into a loudspeaker symbolizing the first recordings of the human voice. The famous image is usually accompanied by the caption from Francis Barraud’s 1898 painting “His Master’s Voice.”
The dog, Nipper, was born in 1884 in Bristol, England. He belonged to Mark Barraud, a scenery designer for a London theater. His was aptly named because he “nipped” the backs of visitors’ legs when they came to the house. When Mark died in 1887, Nipper went to live with Barraud’s brother, Francis, a painter.
The first painting was called “Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph,” and showed an Edison cylinder player. Francis offered an Edison representative the painting for use in advertisements which he declined, saying, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.”
Undeterred, Barraud took the work to Edison’s competition, the Gramophone Co. They offered to buy the painting, if Barraud would rework it to show Gramophone disks instead of cylinders. Within a few years the image became the Gramophone trademark in England, and also RCA in America.
Before he died Mark Barraud recorded his voice on some cylinders, and these were passed to his brother who played them for the dog. In the painting Nipper, is sitting on his master’s casket—enchanted with hearing his master’s voice.
Our Lord’s voice is not like man’s voice. He will not shout to get our attention. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 1 Kings 19:11&12 (ESV)
I am turning off the noise—sitting quietly with my Bible open—inviting the Lord to speak to my soul—because I yearn to hear my Master’s voice.