The account in Mark 2:1-12 of four men getting their friend to Jesus for healing by removing the roof of a house reminded me of a children’s song we used to sing in Sunday School and at Vacation Bible Schools. Sunday School was held at 9:45 on Sundays before the Worship Service, and there was a class for everyone, including adults. I attended Sunday School from the time I was a baby, and when I got old enough (around 12), began teaching classes for Beginners. We attended a small country church, so when the church pianist moved, and no one else could play the piano, I was the pianist too. (taking piano lessons).
The men in this account in the Bible had to work in unity to remove the roof tiles, or whatever material it was composed of, they had to compromise in order to achieve that unity. Four different ideas would have caused chaos instead of getting the man down to Jesus. And they each had to have faith that if they would get the man down to where Jesus stood in the room, that their friend on the mat would be healed. They each held a corner of the mat.
The song I’m referring to is “When we all Pull Together” and went like this:
When we all pull together, Together, together.
When we all pull together How happy we’ll be.
For your work is my work, And our work is God’s work.
When we all pull together, How happy we’ll be.
The kids would choose a partner and pull their arms back and forth together. In the second stanza, they pointed to each other and then themselves, and finally with arms raised, to God.
What a different world we would have if only everyone would have child-like faith, and willingness to work together with others. Instead of riots and burning down buildings, people would realize that more can be accomplished if everyone is willing to lay down their own agendas and be willing to compromise to achieve a goal. God has the best plans and if we can collectively lay all our problems, our wishes our desires, our brokenness, our ideologies, and our inabilities on a “mat” and drop them down in front of Jesus, He is going to say “When you all work together how happy you’ll be!”
Jesus said, “A little child will lead them.” In these times, that’s very good advice.
Naomi Brinkman
