Consult One: Click, Click On
Midnight at the oasis the right half of the bed was a pile of pillows. On the left I, in my micro fleece nightgown, no kerchief, nor papa’s nightcap, I could not settle down for a long winter’s nap. I stumbled about the room, hands feeling about for those extra warm fleece pants tossed somewhere in the master suite.
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| Lamp to be replaced. |
Shivering in the garage, I found one circuit breaker had flipped out of unison. I flipped it into line... over and over. Finally I called MBH, fast asleep, two time zones northwest of the Deep South.
Over a futile hour or more I listened to my beloved hubby’s instructions. Ever the good engineer with the patience of Job, MBH repeated the correct steps as I blindly averred that I had followed them.
The next morning I then heard the same instructions from fellow church members, one a retired certified electrician, R. Parsons. Noontime Mr. R came by the house to peer at the breaker panel. It took a few seconds for him to fix it plus an extra 15 minutes to teach me the double click flips action. He even shut it off to have me do it by myself.
After he left I confessed my ineptitude to my Maria, as she headed out to volunteer at the library. Sighs of thanks shot up to heaven. Later, over our cell phones I heard MBH wonder why he didn’t hear a second click on the breaker panel as he instructed me to do. Then I clearly caught his sweet words of grace extended to me in a verbal hug.
In the Greek text* of the Book of Mark is a Jewish scribe’s critical consult with Jesus. He asked, “What commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered with Hebrew scripture:
"The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’"**
Reading Lois Tverberg’s “Walking in the Dust of the Rabbi Jesus,” I learned the Hebrew word for "hear" is “shema.” In Western ears with our expansive Greek-based English we define hear as “listen.” But in the concise Eastern Hebrew vocabulary, the word shema is beyond listen. Shema goes through the ears into the very mind, heart, and body of action.
If I heard like a Hebrew, I wouldn’t have wasted 12 hours in consult that I insisted "I heard," but did not heed. Dear beloved reader, do not waste time like me. Soak in the words of my Jesus and live.
Shema! L'Chaim!
*Earliest manuscripts of Mark are in Greek.
**Found in this context-- Mark 12:28-31(esv), Deuteronomy 6:4, 5
©Copyright Cynthia Hinkle 2013
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