So, a paralyzed man was caringly carried by four considerate friends. They had probably carted him to the market place for fruits and vegetables, or maybe for some nice imported rugs from Persia. On this particular sunlit day these indomitable friends aspired to get him into the most heralded meeting in town. It was supposed to be a healer in the house. Not the magical spoof riddled kind of healer, but one sent from God, some had said he was the Messiah.

When they arrived they couldn’t get in the house, and they had so hoped to be within reach of the healer. They didn’t even blink. They simply wrestled their way up the side of the house and onto the roof, delicately transferring their crippled friend. When they were positioned right above the Messiah, they began to tear away the roof. They pulled back hand biting thatch and peeled away clay tiles. Fragments fell to the floor. Irritated onlookers stepped back. There may have only been standing room only in the house but up top there was plenty of climbing room. Sometimes to get within reach of a miracle you have think differently from the one way thinking, unimaginative crowd.

Faith goes beyond the ordinary. It refuses to see normal barriers without also recognizing opportunistic doors. Fear sees a wall. Faith sees a door. Human observation sees closed doors, shut windows, fallen bridges, flooded avenues, and high walls. Faith sees that someone may be on the other side of everything that appears to be closed off and shut out. Faith doesn’t turn around and walk away; faith figures out a way to get in; faith looks for something that everyone else has missed. Why didn’t someone else think of climbing up and trying to view Christ from the roof? Maybe it was because they weren’t as desperate. Maybe they just didn’t recognize the different route.

Have you been so caught up with regret’s routine that you’ve failed to see another route? A new way. A better view. A deeper understanding. If you are standing under the clouds you can’t see the sun, and on that day there were many standing under the roof, but they really didn’t see the Son. Someone, however, tore back the ordinary and let the rays of supernatural hope descend. When the light poured through the hole in the roof Jesus was seen in a different light, not the natural light of the sun, but the heavenly light of deliverance. The four friends had already seen it. They knew it before they climbed the wall and got on the sun baked tiles. They had a faith feeling that Christ would be moved with compassion for their friend. And they were right.

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