DECEMBER 19th | AS GOOD AS GOLD AND BETTER
“STRENGTHEN THE FEEBLE HANDS, STEADY THE KNEES THAT GIVE WAY; SAY TO THOSE WITH FEARFUL HEARTS, “BE STRONG, DO NOT FEAR, YOUR GOD WILL COME... THEN WILL THE EYES OF THE BLIND BE OPENED AND THE EARS OF THE DEAF UNSTOPPED. THEN WILL THE LAME LEAP LIKE A DEER, AND THE MUTE TONGUE SHOUT FOR JOY.”
I was watching “The Muppet Christmas Carol” for the first time this holiday season when the quoted words of Tiny Tim struck me in the heart yet again.
It’s that scene where the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge to the Cratchits’ house on Christmas Eve and Bob (Kermit the Frog) and Tiny Tim have just gotten home from the Christmas Eve service. Mrs. Cratchit, played by Miss Piggy (of course), asks Bob how Tiny Tim did at the service and Bob replies, “As good as gold and better.”
I had to dig out my copy of A Christmas Carol to find the exact words because I wanted to remember them forever.
Bob Cratchit continues, “Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day the one who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.”
I teared up again, like I do just about every single time I watch that scene.
I started thinking. I’m not much like Tiny Tim.
I mean, I’m a grown-up female and I don’t have any visible disabilities.
But I am often in a lot of pain that’s not always readily apparent to the casual observer.
Is there a way my pain can bring attention to the One “who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see?”
My entire life should be focused in that direction. Why wouldn’t my pain be a part of that?
Whether the pain stays or goes, may I give God the glory.