I recently read a fascinating article about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. For some of you she was a figure in history, the First Lady when John F. Kennedy was President. For many of us she was an amazing person we often read about in the headlines, her demeanor and interactions with foreign dignitaries always noteworthy.

At a social gathering during the height of the Cold War the First Lady had listened intently to the Premier of Russia Nikita Krushchev’s stories of the Soviet canines Belka and Strelka. They had orbited the earth in space which was quite an accomplishment. Jackie was genuinely interested in Krushchev as a person, and so, learned of his great joy in talking about these space pups.

Several months later when nuclear weapons were in discussion in American and Russian war rooms, at one of the most tense times of the Cold War, the Kremlin sent the Kennedys Pushinka, daughter of Strelka herself. This unprecedented gift was the direct result of the First Lady’s sincere interest in Krushchev months earlier. After x-rays and screening for transmitters and microphones, Pushinka was cleared as not a threat or instrument of espionage. She became a beloved member of the First Family and later had puppies with Charlie the Kennedy’s Welsh terrier.

Jackie’s ability to love a person whom most would call unlovable, to get to know his heart as a person, and to listen, was more powerful in breaking barriers than strident confrontation stemming from fear, the tool more often utilized with Russia at that time. Her quiet demeanor, her ability to listen and relate to the other person was honest. It was just who she was. It was not an intended manipulation, but rather, love begetting love. Sadly, the concept of being interested in, loving a political opponent, is difficult for us to understand for it was a subtle fruit of a way of being that we don’t see very often in today’s polarized society.

It is amazing how much we learn by listening, not just information but sometimes more importantly, we become able to sense, to know the heart of the speaker. When we listen with our hearts we become more interested at that moment in the other person’s life story rather than our own. Our silence spurs on questions for we want to learn more about how the other person feels or thinks. The less we interject ourselves into the dialogue, so often we learn that what we were about to say really wasn’t that important to the bigger picture. If our words are needed there will be a time to share them. We so often jump in just a little too soon, not just on the point of the discussion but more concerning, when we haven’t really understood the heart of the speaker and go off on an unresponsive tangent of our own perspective.

When I was a new believer in Yeshua the woman who was my mentor was such a model of the power of silence. We would be together at meetings, often listening to differing interpretations of Scripture, and she rarely said anything. I was ignorant of Scripture so when not asking questions I was silent, but she was highly knowledgeable. I didn’t give this much thought back then since I was trying to learn as much as possible and the interchanges helped me to learn, think, and grow in my understanding of Scripture.

Often she and I would meet for coffee afterward so she could more deeply answer my many questions, on Scripture and personal ones as well. I had just gone through a divorce so I had lots to discuss. Her intent listening drew me so close to her, for I felt she really cared about me. She would ultimately provide her responses, but not until after an amazing amount of time spent listening.

She loved me. We were heart to heart. In those discussions she was also very open with me about her life and struggles, but only when the time was right, mostly to be vulnerable too, and only after I felt really heard, and loved. Years later, though she lives far away and we rarely connect, when we do it’s as if we both were back at those precious coffee times together, connected heart to heart. It’s only as I’ve matured over decades that I’ve come to fully appreciate the wisdom of her silence and her abilities to be a model of Yeshua’s Love.

There are times we must speak up and that is so important as conversation does lead to understanding. Yet the power of intentionally being silent should not be forgotten for when we are really listening to the other person we will in those moments feel like we are in their world instead of in our own. As my mentor sat silently by my dying mother’s bedside, her hours of silence were powerful. I felt her empathy, her love for everyone in the room, and though I didn’t know Yeshua at the time, I felt His Presence.

Perhaps our Creator provides the best model of silently listening for we know how often our fervent prayers are answered whether in our timing or in His. We feel His Love. Though it feels like silence, yet we know He knows our hearts and hears the murmurs of our lips.

We, too, have been blessed with countless opportunities to be silent listeners, and so, become able to feel the hearts of our brothers and sisters. If Jacqueline Kennedy could connect with Krushchev, an unpredictable, intimidating, adversarial world leader, in such a meaningful way, her demeanor able to diffuse Cold War tensions even if for just moments, how much more possible for us, the little folk, one on one, to change hearts person by person, by our sharing Yeshua’s love of us that dwells in our hearts. His Love’s power could conquer all if only it were let in.

I do believe that changing hearts, one by one, will change the world.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane