Clear as a Bell?

"Did you get the nail?" I asked my husband as he came into the room.  We had bought an item of wall decor and I was needing his help to hang it.   Instead of answering, he went out the front door.  I was standing by the fireplace looking over the mail I had just brought in.

"Is that the mail?" he asked when he came back in.  "I thought you wanted me to get it!"  He had thought I said, "mail." It was funny, but it happens all the time with two people whose hearing is not as keen as it should be.  We've just learned to laugh it off and hope we don't misunderstand something important..

Like the time when our kids were little, and I heard my nine-year-old son ask, "Mom, can I have a hot-dog?"  I was reading the paper and answered distractedly, "Sure, if there are any left from lunch."  Pretty soon I was aware of him on the phone saying something like "AKC, Registered, and other mysterious utterances. I saw that he had the classified section of the newspaper spread out before him.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, to which he replied innocently, "I'm looking for a hunting dog!  You said I could have one!"  I reminded myself to start listening more closely!

Sometimes I accuse my husband of having selective hearing, though.  I can call him repeatedly from the kitchen, then, thinking he hasn't heard me,  I finally go to the bedroom and let him know, "I called you three times!"  His response is "And I answered you three times!"  (Well, what with the stove fan on, the refrigerator humming, and the microwave dinging, I guess I hadn't heard him!)  Anyway he knows that I mean the meal is ready; he just doesn't want to leave his pursuits of reading, TV, or computer. I feel like saying, as I did when the kids were young, "When I call you, I want you to come!"

There is a story in the Bible about young Samuel, who thought he heard Eli, the priest call him, and rose obediently from his sleeping mat.  He immediately went to the priest, and said, "Here I am." (I Samuel  3:4). This happened three times, until Eli instructed him that if he heard the voice call him again, it was the Lord. This time, Samuel recognized it as being from God and received his instructions.

The Bible says in Romans 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."  The previous verses have taught that whosoever calls on the Lord will be saved, but first they must hear about him, and how shall they hear without a preacher? It goes on to say, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel."  Well, my preacher husband is probably in there studying his Bible, hearing from God, so I guess I'll give him some slack.  That is the most important hearing, after all!