My Favorite Gospel

"You know, this morning the father shared a gospel that I just really liked." Said my grandpa this afternoon while he and my grandma sat and visited with us for a while.

We what surprised at his comment and probably more so at the wording "gospel". My mom asked which it was.

"You know the gospel where Jesus was going through a town and there were so many people flocking after Him. After all, He was performing miracles and casting out demons. Who wouldn't want to see Him? I guess they decided to stop at a house and it was just packed with people wanting to see Jesus. But there was this cripple and he had a few friends. Can you believe what they did? Do you know what they did? They dug a whole in the roof to lower their friend down so he could be seen by Jesus. Who does that?! We certainly wouldn't imagine ruining someone's roof for someone like that... I just really liked that gospel."

My grandparents are Catholic and I have not grown up in that tradition. They are pretty quiet about faith matters too so this was the last thing I exceed to hear from my grandpa. In a small way, but yet bigger too, his retelling of this particular gospel in such a way that it seemed like he was recalling something he witnessed, reminded me that these events we read of are more than just stories, but in fact are Good News aka Gospel. My grandpa had been read the story at church this morning and relayed his understanding in plain common language. The fact it had caused him to reflect was really neat. How many times do we just gloss over the Gospel and forget that it is the proclamation of really good news? If you were the cripple, wouldn't it be great news to know your friends wanted to dig through thatch to lower you in the presence of a man who was known for healing others in your town?  Then, not only do they do this, but Jesus in fact restores him from his crippled state. That is some really great news and thousands of years ago it in fact happened. Fast forward to today and see how much Good News you see. Bad things happen but what small things have you seen a friend or family member do for you? what have you done for them? You might begin to realize God is in the Good News business.

I don't know if I have a specific, favorite Gospel but I have cherished moments with my grandpa and this conversation is definitely one of them.

One thing that also continues to stand out- those friends. They knew what would help their friend and went to crazy heights (pun intended) to do that for him. Do we do that? Or are we like how my grandmother mentioned- do we tend to "serve" others and instead of killing that fatted calf for them, we serve corned beef hash?

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