Once a month, I have the privilege of leading a Sunday morning service at a local church among a community called Parables. This community centers the needs of disabled and neurodivergent community members. I have loved building friendships with this community.
Recently, as I began my time to speak, I read Matthew 7:3-5, where Jesus asks pointed questions about judging others: “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’ while the log is in your own eye?'”
After reading that, I asked the gathered community, “As you heard that parable, was there anything that you noticed? What did you hear? Did anything stand out to you?”
Someone spoke up,
“L is my best friend. I know that even if life gets hard, L is always going to be one of my best friends.”
That wasn’t the answer I was expecting, but it was the right one. L was there too, and she smiled when she was affirmed.
We never know what someone will bring to a passage, how they’ll hear it, or how they’ll apply it. But isn’t this response just as valid as a comment about what’s in the text itself — i.e. what it literally says? Somewhere within it, this is what it meant to A, the person who answered. And love was lifted up.
In that moment, it was a great answer.
—Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 