"So Much Pasta!"
EPISODE 213
Keep Watching & Trusting God
The Bible Geeks A.V. Club is back as we return to our popular series, talking through the TV show The Chosen. This week, we dive into the Bible background for the episode “The Wedding Gift” (Season 1, Episode 5), from young Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:41-52) to the wedding where he turned water to wine (John 2:1-12). What’s the significance of that early miracle? What do we notice about Mary in these accounts? As we watch Jesus react to stressful situations with such poise, we ask ourselves: How can we, as his disciples, keep cool under pressure?
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Joy is at the heart of our service to the King.
Episode Transcription
There were sparklers. There was cake. You know, people were stuffing cake into people's faces. It was amazing. More pasta than you can imagine. So much pasta. Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 213. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We are again back here in our fall season of the Bible Geeks Podcast. And last week we talked about some surprising evangelists in our conversation. Thanks everybody for your feedback on that episode. This episode we are getting into an audience favorite. We're talking about the Chosen in our Bible Geeks AV club. The Chosen Season 1 Episode 5 The Wedding Gift. I love episode 5 of Season 1 of The Chosen because this is about the time where we start to see that Jesus was a funny guy. I love that almost every episode it's like a breath of fresh air. When he appears it's like a big reveal, you know, it's a moment. When he's walking up in this episode with the other disciples and the conversation with Mary about did you ever want to have brothers? You're going to have 12 of them. And just that whole story we meet some new disciples. And this was a little bit of a longer episode, I think. Yeah. As it got into several different pieces of the story. The episode is called The Wedding Gift. And I think that leads us into our icebreaker question this week. What was a noteworthy wedding gift you received? And I can think of a few of my own, but how about you? The first thing that comes to mind, someone gave us a giant ceramic swan. I don't know if you remember that we had this. I think it was a planter, but it's just this huge thing that, you know, you spend a lot of time putting together your list that you're requesting. And then sometimes you just get some random pieces. We had no idea what to do with it, but we put it close to our front door. It hit a spare key for a while. It's not anymore. So if you're trying to break into us, we don't have a spare key hidden anywhere. Yeah, because that's what people are doing. They're listening to the Bible Geeks podcast for clues on how to infiltrate your premises. Well, you know, like AI might be building a way of breaking into Ryan's house. Don't trust it. We also got five crockpots. It was the one thing we forgot to put on our registry. And so we got five of them. So make sure you put things on your registry or you might get none or you might get a bunch. Five. Wow. What about you? Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people were walking through the store, looking through your list and being like, wait a second, these silly heads, they forgot a crockpot. I'll fix that. They'll never survive. Yeah. I have very few memories of the specific things that we received. That's why we recorded the entire opening gift thing, whatever, after the ceremony. We recorded it so I could watch it all and remember what actually people bought. But one thing I distinctly do remember though, that we got for our wedding, my mom made us t-shirts. It sounds really silly, but like I had drawn these little pictures, cartoon pictures of Sharilyn and I and of our brand new puppy. And she decided to take these pictures, these little cartoon drawings, and put them on t-shirts for Sharilyn and I. And yeah, we wore those t-shirts till they were threadbare for sure. It was kind of cool to have your own little like t-shirt of your family, your brand new family to show off every day. That's really cool. Oh man. All right. So let's move into our first segment here on the episode. And that's actually a really serious and important conversation. And that is like the teacher. We're going to Luke chapter two versus 41 through 52. And the reason why is because that's where the chosen season one, episode five goes to as it begins. Yeah, it starts out with Jesus as a youth is AD8 in Jerusalem is how it's labeled in the episode. And here we find that Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. Jesus is at this point, 12 years old. And when the feast is over, everybody's heading back. Of course, they would go in these big caravans. And so they thought that Jesus was in the group with all the cousins and aunts and uncles and other neighbors from Nazareth. They went a day's journey. But when they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, they did not find him. So they go back. You know, here it's what two days later now back in Jerusalem looking for him. And after three days, finally, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And of course, his parents are frustrated. They're astonished. His mother says, you know, why did you treat us this way? We've been looking, we've been worried. And he says, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they didn't understand it all. But when they come back, he's submissive to them. His mother treasures these things. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. So when you look at that example of even a young Jesus, what do you take from that? Yeah, you know, we come back to this story time and time again. And I think for good reason. It's one of the unique moments of Jesus' life that really show how relatable he is to us in his story. But I'm not really sure I've ever connected this account to the story that we're going to be covering here in The Chosen episode. Episode five with this miracle at the wedding that we read about, obviously, in the book of John. Like, I've never connected these two stories. But I think it's appropriate that we connect these two stories, actually, in the way that this episode does. Because when you see these two accounts side by side, isn't it interesting how cool Jesus is under pressure? You know, he is just cool as a cucumber. With everyone around him frantic and stressed out, he's just there with the level head, as, you know, in this story here in Luke 2, how his mom is distressed and searching for him like any parent obviously would be. And Jesus just responds so calmly in the way that he always does, right? And then we get to the story in this moment later on that we'll talk about in the episode where Jesus turns the water to wine at this great wedding feast in Cana. And everyone around is stressed out and everything else. Jesus is cool as a cucumber again. He takes care of the situation. But I think the progression that we see in that story is actually not so much in Jesus, but it's in Mary. You know, how amazing that she's able in this moment to just be so stressed out about where is Jesus and where is my little boy? This boy who the angel told me was going to be amazing and great and I can't find him, right? And now in this story that we're going to talk about in a little bit, how she's just cool as a cucumber too. She's not stressed out. Mary has learned to deal with difficult situations knowing that her son is going to take care of what he needs to take care of. I love the progression that we see in Mary. But obviously Jesus just shows us how to see past all the stress and anxiety. So I guess really not just this episode, the whole series, some of my favorite moments are with the women and getting to know these characters. Mary is awesome. The other Mary, of course, is really fascinating and lovable and getting to know Eden in this episode again and how she believes in Peter. You think about how it would have been for her embracing this idea of him just leaving and going on these journeys. We know later on that he brings along his believing wife, as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians. But these are all even the Vintner's daughter in this episode, the winemaker is interesting. So those are all cool. Mary is definitely the most relatable character in this story in Luke 2, especially for a parent. She's very relatable. I have lost children and it is so scary. How am I going to tell Adrian about this? I just feel so awful. That level of panic is very relatable. But Jesus, as usual, is the most remarkable character in this. And the process of Jesus growing up, always fascinating. Like you said, we come back to this a lot. He is learning and he's challenging people. He seems like a childish human in some ways as he disappears on his parents. And yet transcendent as he is focused on a greater mission and this relationship beyond this world. And then he keeps growing in grace and wisdom. And it's just the fact that he is human. His brain is biologically still developing. I mean, when he wasn't preaching and teaching as a three-year-old, there's a reason. He was born into a body and he is developing and developing in his awareness of who he is. And like all of the fullness of deity never left him. It's a mystery. I can't explain all of it. But here he is. He is growing in grace and wisdom. And may we all pursue that same growth. And that transcendence that we must be about our father's business. And there is a task and other people won't understand us sometimes. Won't understand that we have a higher calling than whatever it is everybody's getting caught up in. And we have to be considerate, but also keep pursuing that greater calling. I don't really think about Jesus growing often. Obviously, when you look at stories like this and he's younger, it makes more sense. But Jesus grew. And that's an important reminder for me to have as well. So that's our first segment here on the episode. Let's move on to our second segment. And that is, here's the story. So here in the episode, we're in season one, episode five. So far, we have gotten episode one, which is I Have Called You By Name, an amazing story where we really only see Jesus for just a little bit as he interacts at the very end of that episode with Mary, the demon-possessed woman. Then we see in episode two, the Shabbat in this great dinner scene as Jesus is eating and drinking with his friends. Such a good one. Yeah, absolutely. We also start to see there some other characters show up as well in the way that they eat together. Peter, Matthew. We see Jesus loves the little children in episode three. That was another really good one. Definitely on the top of the list. And then the last episode we talked about here on the podcast was episode four, The Rock on which it is built, an amazing scene of Jesus, the expert fisherman, as he was catching men and then giving them the opportunity to catch others. So here we move on to this story, which is, as we've been talking about, the wedding gift. Yeah, and we're going to pick right up in that moment right after that miracle soon. But first it flashes back to that story from Luke 2, 41 to 52, where Mary and Joseph find Jesus and Mary's frantically searching until Jesus is brought to her. And he knows, he says, I was supposed to be with my father. But to him, that's where he was. Not in the caravan, but the temple. Mary's like, yeah, you were supposed to be with your father. Why weren't you? And he was like, I was. And as he starts to sort of explain that, Mary says, it's too early. It's too early for it. I'm not ready for my little boy to become the Messiah to start this work. But Jesus, at 12 years old, was astonishing everyone. He was teaching. It was amazing. And it's just a cool insight into young Jesus, but also into Mary and Joseph here. And then the picture changes then to John the Baptist, or Creepy John, as he will be known in this series. As he's talking with Nicodemus. Now, another wild man, wild for Jesus from our last episode. Absolutely. John says, I don't like your frock. As he's looking at Nicodemus across the bars, he says, I don't like your frock. The cost of the vestments alone could feed three children for a month. And if you could imagine John saying anything to Nicodemus, probably what they would say. Nicodemus is searching for this miracle man, the one who was able to cast the demon out of Mary that he was not able to cast out. And he's looking for this explanation. He's trying to understand who this man is. And as Nicodemus is telling John about what's happening, John gets really excited. And he says, it has begun. He says, if he's healing in secret now, the public signs cannot be far off. And Nicodemus thinks that John knows who this is. And Nicodemus says, what's his name? And then John begins to quote from the Proverbs in Proverbs 30, verse 4. And they end on this quote together talking about, surely you know his name. What is his name? And what is the name of his son? These two men are quoting from the Proverbs, quoting from Solomon. And they both know that the prophecies are coming true in Jesus. I love moments in movies where two distant worlds are brought together. And you have this clash of different perspectives. And they sort of find a harmony in a moment around a particular thing. In this case, they both honor the scriptures. And they both know the scriptures. And they go back to that. And it's interesting here in this quote, right? It's not just any quote or a quote taken out of context. What we do know about Nicodemus is that he used this quote when talking to Jesus in John 3. So it is kind of a cool way that the storytellers here in The Chosen have taken something that we do actually know about Nicodemus and sort of put it back here in this moment where they're talking to each other in an unrelated kind of conversation. - Yeah. And from that to something, again, that we don't really know about, the origin stories of some of these other disciples like Thaddeus and Little James. James is the one they call the less. This becomes Little James, right? - Little James. - How about I'm Big James? We have two James. Okay. Are you okay with that? Sure. I'll be Little James. And they share their callings at this table early in the wedding. Several of the disciples sit and get to know each other. They're sort of sharing their origin stories of their discipleship. And Simon is shocked to learn that Thaddeus met Jesus while working on a latrine. Thaddeus doesn't want to talk about it. He's like, "I don't think I can say what I was working on in the presence of women." And Simon figures it out. He says the Messiah was working to build a privy, basically. This is weird. Again, back to this idea of Jesus, we don't know exactly all the things he worked on as a carpenter's son, a craftsman, but he had the mundane aspects, the human aspects of life he was involved in. And Jesus had told Thaddeus in the story here that he would build a kingdom, a fortress stronger than stone. And so Thaddeus followed him. And Simon ends by saying that his brother, Andrew, will be very surprised about what Jesus did before. First, he says, "Don't tell him. Don't tell Andrew." But it's kind of a nice little intimate moment with some of the disciples there, not based in a scriptural passage, but just based in the idea that all of these men from different backgrounds had to get to know each other and become this inner circle of Jesus. - And another interesting piece that is part of the dramatization of this story is where we go to next. And that is this great wedding feast. And how we see in this wedding feast, the caterer is Thomas. - Yes, in fact, that Thomas. And the daughter of the winemaker, Rama, is an attractive lady that he is having to work side by side with. And they've been hired to wine and dine the guests for this coming wedding. And Thomas thinks they need some more wine. They needed four jars of wine. And Rama says that the family could only afford three. And so maybe that's the reason why there wasn't enough wine at this wedding. We don't really know. But the wedding gets going and Jesus comes in. He hugs his mom, which is this really touching scene. And then after a while, after the wine runs out, there's obviously more to this story, but Jesus tells Thomas, "It is good to ask questions to seek understanding." Now, as Thomas is trying to figure out what's happening and what's going on, Jesus is kind of foreshadowing in this dramatization how Thomas is going to be a very inquisitive person who has a lot of doubts and needs to ask a lot of questions. He invites Thomas to join him and he says, "I will show you a new way to count and measure a different way of seeing time." And Thomas asks him, "Where am I going to go with you? I don't understand." And Jesus says to him, "Keep watching." And not only does Thomas get this invitation, but Rama also, she is called basically after she sees this great amazing miracle. She says, "I can't pretend I didn't see a miracle." They don't really know what to think. Finally, Rama says, "Maybe for once in your life, don't think." So cool just to see the interaction between these two people as they see Jesus doing some amazing things here. Yeah, and going back to how that played out then, Jesus performing that first miraculous sign of turning water to wine, John 2, 1 to 12 is where that's found. But Jesus in this dramatization, he sends everybody out of the room where the wine jars are and there's a voiceover as Thaddeus in the other room is explaining why he became a stone mason instead of a smith like his father. Mary has asked him about, "Hey, why didn't you become a smith?" And Thaddeus says that when a smith makes something, he can unmake it, he can reshape it. But when a mason cuts stone, it's permanent. And the first cut changes the stone forever. And so to that voiceover in the other room, Jesus says, "I am ready, Father." And he takes these stone jars and he reaches into the jar of water, changing it to wine, thus symbolically cutting the stone and everything is becoming. Of course, he will become the cornerstone that the builders reject, the stumbling stone that then becomes the cornerstone, as the psalmist says. And so he starts this work. He had originally told his mom, "It's not time yet." But he starts it out and he changes it to wine and there's a shriek of joy whenever somebody comes in and checks the wine. And the master of the feast announces to everyone that this is the finest wine, unlike most feasts where they bring the cheap stuff out when nobody will notice it. He says they saved the best for last. This miracle is what then challenges in the story Thomas to become one of Jesus' disciples. And we do know a lot about this miracle. We'll get into that in our scripture du jour conversation. What is the soup du jour? It's the soup of the day. That sounds good. I'll have that. So obviously in this episode, there have been a lot of different pieces of the gospels that we've touched, a lot of different stories all put together into one episode. But as we kind of focus a little bit more on this story of this great wedding feast in John chapter two, verses one to 12, as Jesus does his first really public miracle here. You know, I'm struck here and maybe this is just where I'm coming from in my own life. It's amazing. It's funny how sometimes your situation in your life just colors and changes the way that you see scripture as you read it again with new eyes. But I'm struck with how Jesus is now the adult, quote unquote, in this story. How it appears like in John chapter two, Jesus is the one who Mary leans on. And actually we see that in this episode, there's a little bit of a nod to the fact that Joseph may actually be gone or out of the picture that he may have died by now. And we never really get a picture of that, actually the details in scripture, but it's very clear that we've only really seen Joseph in the beginning of Jesus' life. And we don't see him very often after that. And definitely seems like now Jesus is the adult. Jesus is the one who is taking care of his mom, the man of the house, all the way, obviously, up to that very last moment where Jesus is handing off his mother to the disciple who he loved, John. And I don't know, I feel this very strongly when I see this story that Jesus is the responsible one now. You know, he is the one who Mary leans on and Mary seems so convinced that he is capable of greatness. She's heard the prophecies, "An angel of the Lord," in Luke 1, "tell her, 'Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.'" I mean, Mary heard these words. And so when we see there in Luke 2, as Mary would treasure these things in her heart, how long has Mary been carrying around the information that her son is awesome? Like, I mean, what does that do to a parent just to know that like your little boy who you've been watching and caring for is going to turn around and take care of you in, you know, amazing ways? And so I just see in this story how when everything is upside down and the family is going to face embarrassment for the fact that the wine has run out and all the situation that's going on, you know, Mary turns to Jesus and asks him for help. There are moments in our own lives where we realize suddenly that like we're in charge now. We're no longer the little boy who is being taken care of by everyone around them or the little girl who's watching as she's being cared for by those who love her. Now you're in charge. And I feel like Jesus is stepping up in this moment and acknowledging that like this is my time. Yeah, the way it plays out in the text, all she says to Jesus is they have no wine. Yeah. Right. And Jesus says, you know, what does that have to do with me? My hour hasn't come. And then like without him saying he'll do it, his mother says to the servants, do whatever he tells you, do whatever he tells you. I love that. Like, okay, this is going to get taken care of. And there's so much symbolism, of course, in a wedding feast in, you know, in scripture, and especially as it relates to Jesus. And it was neat to see that played out in the episode, just see a little bit of the few of the details as the groom's mother is planning things and the groom is thinking through it. And the crooked hopa. Yeah. Yeah. But the little tension between in-laws already and, you know, these, the wedding feast, of course, Jesus brings it up in his parables. It comes up in Revelation as this picture of the wedding feast of the lamb with his bride. And it goes back to the Old Testament and this idea of using this imagery of a feast and of wine to help us to understand what Jesus is bringing, the kind of change that the Messiah will bring. I think of Isaiah 25 as kind of a critical passage in that, the development of that theme in the Old Testament, which says, "On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine, well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations." What veil? "He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of his people will be taken away from the earth for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, 'Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'" You know, we quote a lot, you know, "God shall wipe away all tears." That is from this passage. It's quoted again later on in Revelation, but it's from Isaiah 25, this picture of a feast. And of course, this is no endorsement of drunkenness or anything like that, whatever. Sometimes there's weird conversations that come from this, but wine has always been associated with rejoicing and abundance. And the text also specifies the original purpose of these water jars were ceremonial purification. Yeah. And it's hard not to see, you know, like not only divine itinerary as God is working through what he wants to say, but the details that the evangelists, the gospel writers, like in this case, John, decide to pull out and help us to understand. Jesus replaced that pre-purposed ceremonial purification water with jars filled to the brim for a wedding celebration. And this is, again, that's what Jesus is coming to bring. I mean, this is a subject that Jesus and later Revelation will have a lot to say about this wedding feast that he brings as he brings the unity of God and his people, as he brings great celebration and abundance, you know, food without cost, that water of life, you know, and this picture of well-aged wine that Isaiah 25 brings. You know, it's a picture of celebration, God taking care of his people and the joy that will come as that final consummation of history comes when Jesus conquers every enemy. I think that's one of the reasons why I really enjoy this episode. It's hard sometimes when you read the same passage over and over to get the sense of what's actually being felt there in that moment. Like they're at a wedding feast. And when you read that, like sometimes you read it very dry, you know, you read it very like cold. It's like, okay, here are the facts, but imagine like put yourself in that moment. Like you're in a wedding feast. People are dancing. People are shouting. It's a happy time. Like you and I just went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago and it was like, that was a great time, right? Yeah, we were, we were having like, there were sparklers, there was cake, you know, people were stuffing cake into people's faces. It was amazing. More pasta than you can imagine. So much pasta, but like you get into this story where it's like, this is a feast. This is an exciting time. And what Jesus is doing here is he's starting his ministry with excitement, with joy. And I love that you brought that out here because this is, this is meant to be where this story starts out. This is not like Jesus beginning his ministry in a really cold, somber temple or synagogue or something as he's like, no, he's, he's starting out his earthly ministry here in this story with an amazing miracle done out of joy. And what a great reminder, right? This is about joy and what Jesus brings really changes everything in terms of our outlook on life. It really goes with what we talked about last time about celebration and the place of celebration in evangelism, you know, just remembering the joy that Jesus brings. This is where he brings us to the feast, you know, he provides water and food without cost. He takes care of us and that's where the story will end also, you know, and just knowing he has done so much for us and receiving that with gratitude. All right. So this has been our conversation on season one, episode five of The Chosen. Let's get into our reach out question here on the episode. Reach out, reach out and touch someone. So having watched this, having talked about these things, the question we're going to ask each other is how do you or maybe how could you stay calm and even joyful during stressful moments? Sometimes it's not easy to stay calm, but how could you do that when stuff is not really going the way that you think it should? Oh, this is interesting. I just looked down at a note that you made here and I think we're going to talk about something similar here, but maybe from a different angle. Jinx. I started thinking about Colossians four verse two. Whenever you ask this, it says, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving." And I've always found this pairing of watchfulness and Thanksgiving to be a surprising combination, but you can't have gratitude unless you pay attention. I mean, that's where you have to stay aware of what's happening. Like people just sleepwalking through their life. They don't live with gratitude because you're just doing the next thing. And so you have to pay attention and stay aware of what's happening and acknowledge the spiritual dimension to it, that God is the source of every good gift. And we talk sometimes about being present. That's a phrase that people use a lot these days and I like that phrase, but something that seems harder than ever in our distracted, plugged in, fast moving lives. You just always have something pulling you away and fragmenting your attention. But these two Bible words, watchfulness and thankfulness, I think capture a lot of what is at the core of what we mean when we talk about presence, to notice and to be filled with God's presence and to joyfully praise Him for all we enjoy and even all we struggle through. Like you talk about during stressful moment when you are with God, whenever you're filled with the Spirit, prayerfully acknowledging Him in those moments and connecting with Him and trying to follow Him, it changes those things you're going through because you know you're not alone. You know that He has His hands on the reins. Ultimately, you know that there is a source of something. We talked about transcendence at the beginning of the episode. There is something that transcends whatever our situation is. And at the end of the episode, as Thomas is struggling with whether or not to follow Jesus, you know, you talked about that conversation with the Vintner's daughter. She tells us something like, "For once in your life, don't think so much." Getting stuck in our worries and our doubts and our fears and all our spinning thoughts. I mean, I've never done that, but I'm sure some people have. And Thomas, of course, we know later on in the story, in the book of John, he will show himself to be kind of stuck in doubts and questions, which is something that I, through the years, have struggled with. And when we let ourselves just go off into that, not that it's bad to question, not that it's bad to seek and work through things, but you're working towards the Lord. And if we let ourselves get stuck in those loops, you know, the infinite loop of question and thought and worry, then it keeps us from joy and gratitude and obedience to God. But when we yield to Christ, when we live surrendered, wholehearted, undivided in our devotion before him, that's a life of grateful, watchful joy through whatever ups and downs come. So yeah, watchfulness and thankfulness were what I thought of. What about you? What do you think of when you think about being joyful and calm during stressful moments? Well, one of the joys about us sharing a show notes document in Google Drive is that you do get to see what I'm about to say, what I thought through. And I did latch on to that phrase, "Keep watching," as Jesus would tell Thomas there, "Just keep watching," you know? And for me, that just helps so much not to get fixated on, like you said, those loops or getting stuck on the things that worry or trouble me. Just keeping my eyes up and seeing that there's more than what I realize going on in the moment. If I can just keep looking on the periphery and seeing that Jesus faced those same kind of moments himself and that there's a cloud of witnesses who have experienced what I'm going through and all those hidden truths that are more than meets the eye. You know, when I easily catch myself getting stuck, I just need to keep watching and seeing that there's more going on than sometimes I'm seeing in the moment. But if I could pivot and just add one more piece to this, because I think you covered it really well. I think one of the things that helps me to stay calm and even remain joyful during stressful moments is leaning on other people. You know, when it's that feeling of being alone or being by yourself or having no support structure or people around you to hold up your arms, kind of like Moses, when it's in that mode, it's a lot harder. And I think when you go to Colossians 4 verse 2, like you started out the conversation with when he says, "Continue steadfastly in prayer." That prayer piece of it, like we talked about on the last episode, prayer is so helpful in maintaining that perspective, in maintaining that sense of what's important. But prayer and the community and prayer that we lean on our God, it's also something that reminds me of the community that we have with our friends and our neighbors and our people in our church and the close brothers and sisters that we have with us. I really do think helps so much in those stressful moments and it's one of the reasons why we have the blessing that we have in the community of the church. So I love this thought, you know, keeping watching, staying grateful and just communicating and connecting with people really will help, you know, move past those moments where we could easily get stuck. And isn't that one of the ways that God continues to work, you know, is when we have those connections. Sometimes it's through those people, you know, that idea of keep watching is like, watch what I'm going to do, like, watch this, you know, it's like Moses in Exodus 14 being told and all the people being told, all you have to do is stand there and watch. I'm going to do this work. This is how the enemy is going to be defeated. Keep watching. And sometimes that comes through one another, sometimes that, you know, that comes in other ways. But it's that awareness that God is going to do something and we're participants in it. We follow him. We walk with him, but we're constantly aware. We try to be constantly aware that he is busy. He is active and that if we hold on to him, hold on to one another, as you say, as we walk with him together, that he's going to see us through. And that does bring joy. Well, I don't know how an episode of a TV show could get us to have such substantive conversations, but you know what? On the next episode here, we're going to encourage you to keep watching as we go into season one, episode six in our next conversation of the chosen. We're going to go and talk about the indescribable compassion. The episode there where Jesus does some amazing things for a group of lepers, a really popular story and great encouraging story that Jesus leaves us with in the gospels and is definitely quite the tearjerker. I am looking forward to that conversation on the next episode. I haven't seen it yet, so I'll look forward to that too. Bring your Kleenex, big guy, and keep watching. Thanks everyone for tuning into the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website at biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player of choice or biblegeeks.fm/213. You can follow along with us on social media. You can reach out, ask us any questions you might have, or suggest topics for future episodes on our website or in person or wherever you might find us on the interwebs. And until next episode, everyone may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom.```