A Bigger Net

I remember sunnier days behind the fraternity house. When Corona was a beer and people liked to sip it.

But that was then and this is now.

And a part of me wants to find a shovel. Dig the deepest hole for me and my family.

But I keep thinking about what my 17 year-old patient said. She’s on her third foster home and she misses her younger sister. For the first time in her life, she has her own bed. Most of her clothes have come from donated tied-up-tight trash bags. She says she doesn’t mind. Her entire life has never been anything but deep holes and dirt.

We started talking about Corona—the virus, not the beer. My question was more rhetorical than solution-seeking: “I just don’t know these days…..What do you do when the sky is falling?” She bit her bottom lip and answered like she had been preparing her whole wild life for this one response.

“That’s easy,” she said, “we get a bigger net.”

If the sky is falling, we get a bigger net.

It’s some pretty optimistic, hopeful advice in response to a life that has never been that kind to her. While I’ve been looking for shovels; she has been looking for bigger nets.

She’s a broken-hearted, busted-up kid who’s had a pretty rough life. But she looks past sleepless nights because now she has her own bed. She looks past used-up clothes because she is grateful for a new life. She looks past the fact that she’s in her third foster home, but she knows it is her last home and it’s a good one.

It’s not that she’s not worried about Corona. It’s just that her HOPE is stronger than her fear. It’s just that she can see past today because of what tomorrow can bring.

She’s Mary and John at the crucifixion. She’s the bleeding woman who touched the hem of Jesus. She’s the kid who offers fish and bread to feed 5000. She’s David beating Goliath. She’s Moses crossing the Red Sea. She’s Ruth and Job and Mary Magdalene.

She’s “for such a time as this…”

Because she’s a Resurrection People.

An Easter People.

People who look past holes in the ground and dirt—and instead sees an empty grave. She looks past the cross on the hill on Friday because she knows Sunday is coming.

She’s a 17 year-old kid and she’s everything I want to be.

And because of her, I know that if the sky is really falling…..I don’t want to be caught holding a shovel.

I want Jesus to find me holding up a bigger net.