Good News in a Phone Booth

"You have a call Mrs. Sipe."  My eyebrows shot up in surprise.  Who even knew where I was to call me?   Dick was at church camp for the week.  I was 60 miles from home in a vet's office with one of my dogs.  I went to the phone and it was good news.

We had been waiting for several months for The Call.  The Call would give us the arrival information for our son.  We were to be available at anytime to meet him.  We weren't home when The Call came.  Our secondary phone number was the church office.  Fortunately I had mentioned to Mary, the church secretary of many years, that I was going to Fresno to take the dog to a vet.

When The Call came, Mary didn't receive the information just the message that we were to return the call.  Mary knew this was it and she needed to find me.  So Mary took out the Fresno Yellow Pages and started calling each and every vet in town looking for me.

I can't remember how many vets she called before she found me.  But as soon as I finished with the vet I was in the nearest  phone booth. (This was 30 years ago this week and well before cell phones.)  So the good news came in a phone booth.  I now had the date and time of his arrival!

In Mark 2:1-5 at least four friends of a paralyzed man used some imagination to solve a  problem and get  this man to Jesus.  Jesus had returned to Capernaum.  The news about Jesus was out and everywhere He went there were crowds of people. Such a crowd was in front of the group with the paralyzed man.  It was so crowded they couldn't get him to Jesus.  So they went up on the roof of the house above Jesus and dug through it.  Then they lowered the man on a mat through the roof to meet Jesus.  Jesus saw their faith and said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

I admired the friends' determination to get the paralyzed man to Jesus.  They knew He had good news for him and they were going to assure that he received the good news.

I am convicted by their faith and action.  Too often we let the "crowds" of the world keep us from being in front of Jesus.  We often give up too soon and allow the distractions of the world keep us from being with Jesus.  Sometimes we satisfy ourselves which the bits we can hear from the back of the crowd or overhear others repeat what they heard Jesus say?

Am I determined enough to climb up to a roof and spent the time to dig through a roof, full of who knows what, and hear the Good News directly from Jesus rather from the back of a crowd?

Today I remember my friend Mary who was ready to call every vet in Fresno so I could hear good news in a phone booth.  I am challenged by the determination of the paralyzed man's friends who didn't let a crowd prevent him from being in front of Jesus.

I want to stop at nothing to hear from Jesus. I don't want to give up too soon like the other folks at the back of the crowd.  Faith will get me to  the front and with Jesus.

And, who in my life needs to be in front of Jesus and what am I going to do to help that happen?