At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’ Luke 10:21-24

These words have always confused me:

‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

I think they stink.  They stink because they are not the GSHJ I have come to know.

– – – – – – – – –

How do you get across something as natural as breathing to you but that is alien to another, Paul?  How do you write the words, speak the words, communicate what it takes for another to “get” what you do naturally?  You and I chat.  You write up the words you hear me speak.  You worry about getting the words right.  And that is good.

But you cannot communicate the sound or speed, the pitch or tone.  You cannot write the milliseconds that encompassed a paragraph.  The flashes of insight and the context.  The temperature.  What happened yesterday.  What you face today.  Who is around you.  Every second of your own unique life to this moment.  You cannot “write” all of that in these words and this moment between you in me.  That will always be between me and you (and then differently between me and each reader of Luke’s words and now your words).

So these words of Luke sound “stinky” to you.  By which you mean arrogant and ungracious.  And you never hear me being any of those things – you have been taught I am not (and never could be) any of those things.  And you see that in (some of) Luke’s words.

But what do others reading your words (of my words) hear?  How do you know what they think of your words of me (and you)?  Might these words be read as “stinky”?  And why do you see “stinky” in Luke’s words (of my words)?

And why should I give you a nice neat answer (as I hear you thinking I will)?  Because I am in all the words of every conversation each of you have with me (together and alone).  But the “getting” me or not of the words of another (in this case Luke) … ?

Those ripples are mine (and not yours).  So Luke can never misrepresent me – you can never “misrepresent” me.  The “magic” happens when Luke’s words meet you IN me.   When your words meet another IN me.  And in this case, the magic hasn’t happened (yet) with Luke’s words.

Whether it does is always down to you IN me.  Not Luke and you.  Which is why “stinky” is not a bad thing – it is an honest thing.  And honesty draws us both closer.

And that is when the magic happens IN you AND me.

– – – – – – – – –

As I sit here looking at his words on this page.

I never said a word.

I didn’t need to.

And the magic happened.

.