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A mother with a sick child was told four times to go home, and did not.
Yes, teacher, I understand your words. I am only a dog in the eyes of the Jews, but as concerns your Master, I am a believing dog. I am determined that he shall see my daughter, for I am persuaded that, if he shall but look upon her, he will heal her.
On Friday, June 10, A.D. 29, Jesus and his associates arrived near Sidon and lodged with Karuska, a well-to-do woman. Jesus wanted rest and told his associates to let no one know he was there. They obeyed, but Karuska's servant went to a Syrian neighbor, Norana, whose daughter of about twelve suffered a grievous nervous disorder with convulsions, and urged her to bring the girl. On the Sabbath afternoon she came. The Alpheus twins explained through an interpreter that Jesus was resting; she said she would wait. Peter tried and got nowhere. Thomas tried and withdrew. Then Simon Zelotes told her she was a Greek-speaking gentile, and that it was not right to expect bread meant for the children to be thrown to the dogs. Norana did not take offense. She answered only this.
The record says Norana "refused to take offense at Simon’s thrust" (156:1.5). What she replied takes Simon's word and keeps it. A dog in the eyes of the Jews; but as concerns the Master, a believing dog. Then the reason she will not leave: she is persuaded that if he only looks at her daughter he will heal her. Then the crumbs. At that moment the girl went into a violent convulsion in front of them all, and Norana cried out that if the apostles were not moved by what they saw, their Master would be, since she had been told he loved all men and dared to heal gentiles when they believed. She told them they were not worthy to be his disciples and said again that she would not go (156:1.6). Jesus had heard all of it through an open window. He came out and said: "O woman, great is your faith, so great that I cannot withhold that which you desire; go your way in peace. Your daughter already has been made whole" (156:1.7). The girl was well from that hour. Jesus asked mother and daughter to tell no one. His associates kept that request; Norana and the child did not, and told it through the countryside and in Sidon until Jesus found it advisable to move his lodgings within a few days. The next day he took the healing up with the apostles as a plain fact about the gentiles: they were able to exercise saving faith, and the Father's kingdom would be taken by the gentiles if the children of Abraham did not show faith enough to enter it (156:1.8). The record presents the whole of Jesus' earth life as lived subject to the Father's will (129:3.5), and it presents this healing as his answer to a mother's faith, not to the arguments of his apostles.
family · a sick child · persistence · faith
Fifteen situations. Each one gathers lines the record spoke into that same situation, printed word for word, with the person and the place they were said to. A path names a situation. It does not prescribe.
Choose a situation. The lines that follow were said into that same situation, to a named person, in a real place.
A new scene on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Six weeks, then the library begins again.
A fatherless young man hiding from people, convinced he is helpless.
A young person who keeps leaving instead of facing what is in front of him.
A team so frayed and overwhelmed that its leader cannot think straight.
Someone whose ambitions have stalled and whose pride is bruised, asking why happiness comes so easily to others.
A young worker stuck under an unjust boss, wondering why nobody in heaven does anything about it.
A woman running a small business whose days have become drudgery.
A successful professional whose career is outpacing everything else in his life.
A person whose job is to decide other people's fates, and who has to be fair about it.
Someone whose venture has failed and who is working hard to make it look like success.
Someone facing a decision who has not yet admitted what the real problem is.
A father in Egypt teaching his son about money, honesty, and fear.
A wealthy man unsure what to do with his money.
Two brothers fighting over their dead father's property.
A wealthy young man who wanted the job but not the price.
A husband who lost his temper and attacked his wife in public.
A mother who refused to leave until someone saw her sick daughter.
A young man hearing how his parents' love and wisdom shaped him.
Two friends who could not agree about how forgiveness works.
Two young people leaving a hostile family, with a hiding place already prepared.
A father coming home to his family after thirty days alone with his mistake.
Someone asking why a good person is suffering.
Staying loyal when the people in charge have gone bad and no help is coming.
A skeptic who wonders whether his doubting disqualifies him.
A committed man whose cause is collapsing in front of him.
Someone facing the consequences of a terrible mistake that cannot be undone.
Someone holding a grudge, or stuck brooding after a hard loss.
Anyone asking why life has to be this hard.
Someone lying awake over things that have not happened.
Someone deciding how to respond to a person who has treated them badly.
A capable, ambitious man giving up the plan he had built his life around.
AN, the Sumerian sign that stood before the name of a god, stands here before the book’s own words, and only after the line has been checked against the text at its citation.
KI, the earth, stands before the observation: what the text does in that place, on that day, to that person. Never what you should do.
The series takes its name from a guardian seraphim’s testimony on Salvington: “Such a life on such a planet!” (111:7.5). Every line on this page can be checked by anyone, in one click, at /verify.
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