Monday, December 5, 2011

Luke 5:17-26

It's very easy to think of all the things you can't do. I find myself reprimanding myself for last week's posts. Confused and crying out for what I'm missing to be explain in simple terms.

It was easy to see the crowd blocking the way to the house where Jesus was speaking. Not so easy, but certainly not impossible, to see the only other way in: the roof.

In a lot of ways, I feel like my parents trained me to see the roof - or at least to look for the roof. With yet another Sherlock Holmes movie coming out soon (love them!), I find myself clarifying: not to see everything, everything that most people miss. I was trained to ask questions until things become clear - pick into every detail. And to never be afraid of the truth.

I try to remind myself of that - that Mulvaneys know there is nothing to fear in the truth. There is no truth that you cannot, with the right attitude and other information and smarts, turn to your advantage. It's a crazy idea, Dad, it really is. But I've always loved it.

I think about that moment in that we're not actually shown in the story (since, after all, the gospels are written from the point of view of the apostles, whose first indication that it was happening would have been the roof above their heads vanishing). I think about how movies or television shows would portray that moment - something glints off a roof and one of the friends of the invalid has a sudden mad idea, a burst of inspiration.

And maybe that happens all the time for a lot of people but - it certainly takes a lot more work to sit there and try to figure it out. To believe so fiercely that not only can God fix the invalid but that He wants to, that He will provide a way. That if you look at the pieces, if you look outside the box, if you are methodical and find the right questions - then you will find the roof. The bit of truth hiding in plain sight - or the obvious other way that no one thinks to take instead.

So is that our job then, as people of faith, to keep looking for the Other Option - the Better Option - that people who think about the world simply don't see? That people who don't have faith to drive them would never be driven to find?

To find the roof. Because we have to find some way to help our friend. To believe that God will heal him someday if we can just figure out the better way to reach Jesus.

And to carry him on the stretcher in the meantime.