Are you listening?  Of course:  everyone listens.  But not everyone hears.  Consider Hayden's famous oratorio, "The Heavens Are Telling of the Glory of God".  Based on the words of Psalm 19, this stirring piece lauds the presence of God in all creation, the active and constant movement and speech of God throughout the cosmos.  As the psalm observes that "by day and night [God's] voice goes forth, resounding in the firmament of the sky," announcing, steadily and continually, that God is there, present and available, speaking to all who would hear.
     Or think about Proverbs 8, which opens by proclaiming that "wisdom calls," calling to all who would hear, calling to anyone who seeks insight into the mysteries of the creation, the seeker, the learner, the one who wants to know more about the universe in which she finds herself.  The truth, contained and embodied as it is in the creator God, is always calling us.
     In both cases, however, the writers note that this speech, this calling will only be heard by those who desire to hear it, by those who believe that there is something to be heard.  Whether God speaks through wisdom, the creation, or the person of Jesus, we will not hear him unless we choose to hear him.  God is always be talking to us, but unless we make an effort to listen to what he is saying, we will never hear him.
     How do we know God is speaking?  Ponder this first:  clearly, the universe speaks to us, speaks to us through its wonders, its tragedies, its life, its people.  It never stops talking, never ceases promulgating its majesty and grace.  If the universe is an accident, birthed from a vast nothingness, a pervasive vacuum of nonbeing (as many believe), however, its existence really has no point.  What can it then speak about?  If the universe cannot explain why it and no other universe exists, we well wonder what it can really say to us.  Sure, we can enjoy it, and sure, we can live and die in it, but if the universe has no purpose, then precisely what is it?  What is the real content of its speech?
     If the universe speaks, we must assume that it has a purpose.  And we can only assume that it has a purpose if it is not an accident, if it has been purposefully created and endowed with a meaning greater than itself.  This can only be true if the universe originated in something (someone) with purpose, value, and meaning, someone like, well, God.  Hence, if we believe we hear the universe (and everyone, in some way, does), what we are really hearing is God, speaking, as the psalm and proverb we mentioned above attest, to us, speaking to us of his presence and love for us.  We are hearing God speaking in what he has made.
     Can you hear God now?