When Barbara Bennett of Vancouver, Washington, decided to sell her Brother brand sewing machine, she did a reasonable thing. She placed a classified ad in her local newspaper. Under the headings "Miscellaneous" and "Items under $50," she bought space in The Columbian.

The advertisement didn't come out exactly as intended. Somewhere along the line from purchase to copy editing to printing, the words "sewing machine" got lost. So Ms. Bennett wound up offering a "BROTHER" for sale! She has two male siblings, as a matter of fact, and insists she wouldn't part with either of them.

The announcement must have raised some eyebrows. And it got some responses. One person called her and was given the corrected information — that it was a sewing machine rather than a person on the block. "Thank you!" came the response, and the caller hung up. Another person called the number in the ad and wanted to know if the price was negotiable!

Have you ever been misunderstood? Been guilty of poor communication? Had a key word dropped from or added to your message? Been judged harshly by someone who read a false motive into something you said or did?

Sometimes misunderstandings can be cleared up through fuller and better information. At other times, the person who misjudged a situation catches on, feels foolish, and takes the initiative. Sometimes there is nothing to be done — except try to go on with your life, without bitterness.

Jesus knows about being misunderstood. His home life, for example, was less than ideal because his own brothers made fun of the notion that his life had a divine mission. When he preached in Nazareth, his boyhood home, the people dismissed him as a nobody. "Isn't this the carpenter's son?" they asked.

Jesus knows about being misunderstood.
He must have felt terribly alone when people misread and misjudged him. The crescendo came, of course, when he was betrayed by one of his friends and left to be judged by a Roman bureaucrat who was clueless to understand a kingdom "not of this world." In that swirling mess, he told his apostles: "You will all leave me; yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me" (John 16:32). When misunderstanding leaves you abandoned, God-presence is the secret to survival.

Of the brother-for-sale episode, the paper ran a corrected ad. And one of Ms. Bennett's brothers said, "It's okay. I needed a good laugh."

Would that every human confusion might have so happy an ending.