I remember teaching our oldest to ride a bike. We have a flat stretch in front of our mailbox, but as you get past the house, towards a cul-de-sac, the road slants downhill, so once you get going you can pick up speed, which is a little scary when you’re just getting going. She was on the bike and, even after a few falls, was still a bit more confident than I was. As a parent your job is to help get things moving, and then to run alongside, early on with your hand on the back of the seat, then slowly letting go – sometimes the rider is to notice, sometimes they aren’t, until everyone is stable enough to ride off on their own. It begins with the necessary scrapes and tears, the persistence, then the euphoria…anyone who has helped a child do this knows the feeling…they finally get it, are riding off, and they realize they are doing, the adult back behind them raising their hands in victory! Yes! They did it! They did it!
Here in chapters 9 and 10 Jesus is trying to teach the disciples to ride on their own. They’d been following on dusty roads after they dropped their nets, seen healings, casting out of demons, a young girl restored to life. He walks on water, cures a blind man by the pool at Bethsaida – Jesus spits in his hands and rubs his eyes. “Can you see now?” he asks him with a smile.
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