The Missing Doorbell

“Where did the doorbell go??????” I frantically texted my husband at work. The last time I was in the camper, it was right where it was supposed to be, and I had already bought and installed a new battery for the outside button with the sign over it that said, “Please ring the bell.” The doorbell was a gift from my sister and brother-in-law one Christmas, and it meant that we were posh enough to have a doorbell for our camper! A feature I highlighted to the potential buyers I videoed with the week before.

It was over three hours before I got an answer from Hubby, “I don’t know. You mean the one on the camper?”

I was sure he must have seen it, thought it was something I had left behind when we cleared the camper out to get it ready to sell, and had thrown it in the dumpster. He has been known to do such things.

“Yes, the camper. It was there the last time I was there and I just got a new battery for the outside button today.”

“Did it look like a bug thing? lol”

Oh dear, now I was sure he had thrown it out. I could sense the nervous lol even in the text.

“Yes. Maybe to you it did. It was plugged in beside the fridge.”

“Ok, it’s plugged into the electric socket in the garage. My bad. I thought it was a thing to keep mice away. I just thought, that sure was a pretty one .. lol 😆”

Thinking about the missing doorbell reminded me of how easily we can mistake God’s good gifts for something they aren’t. An electronic mouse repellent is used as a doorbell, and a pretty doorbell is plugged in to a socket in the garage to repel rodents. The gift of discipline is mistaken as punishment. The gift of grace is mistaken for permission. The gift of justice is mistaken for vengeance. The gift of holiness is mistaken for legalism. So we grab these things and plug them into our lives thinking they will work just as well as the gift, rather than using the gift as that for which God intended.