When four friends brought their paralytic companion to Jesus, the gospels say He "saw their faith." What did He see? Was their something immaterial that He could observe? Or was it just that these guys made the effort to carry their friend all the way there, push through the crowd, and destroy some property just so they could get there friend in front of Him? Hmm. There was only two things that the gospels ever report that amazed Jesus: 1.) faith or 2.) a lack of faith. Faith is the most striking immaterial thing I can think of. I was once told: faith is sitting on the limb of tree - while doing this you saw the limb off, expecting the tree to fall over while the limb hangs in mid air. There is a touch of the insane when it comes to faith. Here's a true story I heard once:
There was once a father and a little boy. Everyday, the father came home from work through the front door, which was at the bottom of the stairs to the second story of the house. Each day, when his father came in, the son would stand at the top of the stairs and say, "Daddy, catch me!" He would jump, and his father would catch him. One day, the boy was a bit late in doing this, and the father began to take off his coat and hang it on the peg on the wall. Meanwhile, the little boy came to the top of the stairs and jumped, without saying anything. As he flew through the air, his dad turned around just in time, and caught him!
How strong was this child's confidence in his father's strength and attention to him! Even without asking for it, he expected his dad to take care of him. He didn't even hesitate. Faith is the stuff that fills the gap between reality and possibility. Sometimes it's almost electric - you can feel it in the room when people are believing to receive something from the Lord. Sometimes it's just simple and unblinking - like that little boy. Whatever it feels like, it is a confidence in God's grace that has very little respect for facts. Its personality simple and trusting. It assumes things that the religious may find presumptuous, unwise, or even insensitive. It is counter-intuitive.
As the song alludes, God sometimes will not move on a situation until it's so bad that only He could fix it. God could have had Abraham and Sarah conceive Isaac when they were both still young, but He decided to wait. He did similar things in the case of Hannah (Samuel's mother) and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Moses was born during the wholesale slaughter of Hebrew babies. God seems to prefer situations that are tilted against His success. Earlier I said that faith is the stuff that fills the gap between reality and possibility. Well, I believe that sometimes the Lord will make that gap bigger by allowing the situation to get more impossible. Why? Because He wants our faith to grow bigger!
Faith in God glorifies Him intrinsically. In fact, without faith it is impossible to please Him. (Heb 11:6) Faith says to Him: "You are bigger than this." And He is. "...the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." Chronicles 16:9 Will you be loyal to Him? Will you believe? Will you let Him stretch your faith to fill a bigger gap this time? Trust Him!
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