Teachable Moments

Acts 16:16-24
John 12:20-26
My son taught me a valuable lesson once when he was about 5. We were driving along when we saw a beautiful rainbow perched above our town. Being the dad that I am I began to explain to my son how sunshine passing through rain causes the light to refract and to display the various colors that it contains. My son grew serious.

“No, Daddy,” he said. “The rainbow didn’t come until the rain had stopped.” He was talking, of course, about the Noah account from Genesis 9, a lesson that he had studied in Sunday School. And while from a strictly scientific viewpoint he was wrong, in terms of faith he was exactly right. It was a teachable moment in which I was the student.

I thought about that conversation with my son when I read our passage from John. Some Greeks have come with the desire to meet Jesus. Jesus instead takes the opportunity to teach his disciples about the cost of discipleship and the events that are about to take place in Jerusalem (John 12:23-24). The whole world seems to be catching on, figuring out that Jesus is up to something special. But Jesus wants to make sure that the disciples at least get the correct message so that when his death and resurrection take place they can look back on his teaching and understand.

In the Acts passage for today Paul gets tired of being “called out” by a slave girl with a spirit of divination. So he drives the spirit out of her. At first this seems like a strange thing to do. At least she knows what she is talking about. She knows that Paul, Silas and the others “are slaves of the Most High God” (Acts 16:17). Is it really so bad to have her saying this? But Paul sees a teachable moment, “and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out of her that very hour” (v. 18). Now the words of the slave girl have been amplified by the actions of Paul, and any who had witnessed this will have a clearer understanding of the forces at work.

Teachable moments can pop up at any time. A 5-year-old boy may set you straight on rainbows and faith, or a Bible story may make things a little clearer for you. Pay attention. These moments are important, and they just may contain the answers to prayer.

Prayer: Lord, help us to learn from the teachable moments that overtake us. Pour out your Spirit upon us and open our hearts and minds to your truth. Amen.