If you watch great movies, you heard “the voice.”

In 1982, Steven Spielberg made a film that captured the imagination of audiences. He told the story of a being from the universe who crashed on earth. With the help of some kids, this strange creature got home.

The movie was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

But what about the voice, the one of E.T. himself?

Spielberg could not find the right voice until he went to a store. It was there he heard it.

A woman talked to the shop assistant, and Spielberg knew it was what he had searched for. He walked up to the woman named Welsh, handed her his card, and invited her for an audition.

Mrs. Welsh used to be a speech trainer. But decades of cigarette smoking left her with a cracked and croaky voice. So it was that an unknown American housewife, Pat Welsh became a footnote in an award-winning movie.

God can’t use us, we say. We have flaws. Others, with more talent, are better. So we slink into the shadows.

But God is looking for a voice for his message.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

God wants his message, not the speaker, to stand out. So he looks for a voice that has flaws and faults. That way, God’s grace, and glory get seen through the cracks.

Never disdain who you are. It is God who is looking for the right voice so use yours for God’s purposes.

-Robert G. Taylor-