Many of us read scripture every day. We do so on some significant level to begin the day or end the day or divide the day with the memory that God acts. As years go by we find that our expectations of that action gentle, or at least I do.
I do not expect this day that I will find the slave girl Paul finds locked in a life of divination for other’s profit. Her whole existence is summed up this way. Her usefulness, her value, her heart and mind are only of any use as long as she can articulate what she sees by some spiritual force that controls her.
She is an annoyance to Paul and Timothy as she continually announces, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17). Why this is an annoyance I am not sure. Was it the constancy? Was it the way it affected their credibility because it seemed a circus act? What we know is that once she was relieved, healed of this habit, this way of being owned and possessed, both she and her owners had to deal with the clarity of her humanity or not.
I suppose it is like being too anything, too beautiful, too intelligent in one vein, too witty in an obsessive way. You can get lost and your complex goodness not noticed. You are expected mostly to be that. Your emotions, your struggles, your coming to be in other ways can go unseen. It is only when the fullness of who you are is noticed that you feel seen, known, genuinely appreciated. Your faults are as much a part of you as your gifts. This complexity is God’s creation meant to be noticed and valued. Your growing edges are often in these under noticed faults or over noticed for that matter. Once she is healed or begins to heal she and her owners have to deal with the real person inside and Paul can do the real work of helping folk grasp the change that comes in Jesus. That change is knowing one’s self as faulty but loved, errant but forgiven, gifted and loved, able to act and care.
This so often defines the realm of God’s work with us. We are loved and complex creatures coming more and more into being and usefulness. God acts in these places. When we remind ourselves of this we may notice our usefulness. Scripture helps us trip that memory.
I just spent some days with a lovely friend who is a harpist for the joy of being a harpist I think. Along the way she has developed a commitment to play for several senior living facilities often in the areas of the lesser noticed folk. Sometimes this is in the dining moments, sometimes with Alzheimer patients or the very elderly too often left to mull over the days now past. Some special friendships have developed and she is very attentive to a couple. You might say she is useful to God. Memories are often found by music. One can journey back to a happy place or an emotionally rewarding place. One can remember one’s essential value; taste again what it is to have been in love, dance, and feel significant. Does God act here? I think so and for a moment there is healing and sweet hope is tasted.
Perhaps God’s core miracle in our lives is that when we learn to see and help others see our core, essential worth reflected in the touch, speech, actions of another’s care, we awake again to our value, our self as gift and not because we a profitable. Rather because we simply are part of the flow of care God in Christ names and sets free in the world.
I read scripture to remind myself, God acts. Does that seem so to you?
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