What’s That You Said?

Every couple years I have a hearing test. A navigation officer must be able to keep a lookout by “sight and hearing as well as by all available means.” By the test, I have pretty good hearing, but sometimes I still have a remarkable ability to mishear!

Take for example Ship Stability class this fall. The instructor kept referring to this “Intaxibility Code.” I’d never heard of it, but dutifully jotted it down in my notes. She said we would cover it later in the course. I was curious what taxation had to do with ship stability, but content to wait for clarification. Fast forward a few months and my instructor opened the Powerpoint presentation titled, “Intact Stability Code.” Oh! That made so much more sense. As a side note: Ship stability doesn’t just happen. Mariners don’t just hope the boat will float. Measurements and calculations are done and the values compared to the standard set in the Intact Stability Code. This ensures there is enough stability to not capsize when subject to wind and waves.

Well, just the other day I had another mishearing. But instead of making me laugh at myself, this one made me think. I was listening to Sovereign Grace Music. And I heard the lyric “Divine Intender.”

It caught my ear because of a question in my heart. Is God intentional in relationship with me? Does He pursue me? I know His arrival as a baby, God taking on human form, was in love and pursuit of every person in this world. And I know He pursued reconciliation and relationship with us even to death on a cross. But what about now? What about every day?

So what’s the big deal? Deep inside my female heart, initiation in relationship is interpreted as love, and pursuit makes me feel secure. I know this because I have wrestled through a dearth in the relationships where I should have been most safe and cherished.

Divine Intender. The One Who Intends. Wow.

Turns out I got the lyric wrong. In the song “Who is This?” Sovereign Grace actually sings, “Who is this, divine and tender, hailing from eternal shores?” Playing a snippet for my sisters just now as we sat on the playroom floor (the kids had disappeared to other things, but there we were, Miriam in a too-small chair, Anne laying on a blanket where she had been a “baby” for the girls earlier, and me in a play teepee), we shared a laugh and then Anne thoughtfully added, “Well, He is tender in His intention.”

I’m glad for this most recent mishear, not only for a smile but to remind me of a truth my heart needed to re-hear.