Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Would I be a Phillip? Would I be a Nathanael? I think I'd be their sibling. They remind me of my family.
I can just imagine the conversation around the dinner table: I hear my youngest brother saying, "We have found..." and my next older sister saying, "Can anything good come out of ..." and my brother replying, "Come on, I'll show you." So I don't think Nathanael is cynical; perhaps he's just endured Phillip's enthusiasm too many times before.
My sister would have gone, because you just can't say no. And as a sibling, I'd have tagged along, without the obligation of my brother's request, but because, well, you never know what he might have found this time.
And tagging along has shown me a lot: nothing is ever quite as another person describes it, but that doesn't mean it should be rejected. Experience has taught me that things are almost never exactly what they initially appear, which brings up Nathanael's comment. Can anything good come out of (insert your least favorite thing here)?
To0 often, we see what we expect to see, particularly about things we think of as second-rate. I teach at a school in the East End of Henrico, and I have overheard people make disparaging comments about it, to the effect of, "Can anything good come out of...?" I know how precious my students are, and what great things are happening there. And I want to say, like Phillip, "Come and see!"
There's so much that we don't see because we don't look. And so often we won't see because we won't open our eyes to it. There's some advice that sticks with me from an entirely non-religious author (Terry Pratchett) when one character tells another how to see the truth of what something is: "Open your eyes. Now, open your eyes again.
" Wow! There's a lot out there -- come and see!
- KATHY BROCK
Re-published from "spirit", St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA
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