Superhuman

Superhuman. The word conjures up images of crime fighting heroes and massively strong beings with abilities which allow them to do things of which movie plots are made. Perhaps those abilities involve things other than strength: super vision, hearing or even mental power. In the realm of entertainment, it can include psychic powers. The word itself simply means to do something exceeding normal human abilities, which in some cases could be nothing more than the ability to walk past a container of home-made brownies on the kitchen counter and not give in to the temptation to eat them all in one sitting. Or even without bothering to sit..

I have done such a superhuman feat over the past few days. There was, in fact, a container of brown deliciousness - sugary love in 2" square format - sitting on my counter. And it never even tempted me. In fact, my wife also was not tempted, and she was the one who baked them. Now, her feat of superhuman self-control was greater than mine because she had to endure the baking process, so I want to give her full props. In fact some would say that simply being my wife is a superhuman feat, and maybe that is a subject for another blog, another day. Back to the brownies: we gave them away last night.

My Niece is doing her senior project for college by designing and helping to build and install a Christmas Light Display on our house. It will be amazing. Computer controlled, featuring enough lights and special effects to dazzle, bemuse and annoy the neighbors, and it drew a lot of visitors last year when they did it at their house.

One of the people deeply involved in this project is Ryan. This is a man of unusual height. I think Ryan is 6 foot 10 inches tall, or "Five foot twenty two inches" as he sometimes explains it. Ryan is a good friend, a nice guy and enjoys working with this project. He also is a wonderful example of superhuman, because he can simply reach up and hang the various lights and LED arrays from the eaves of my house while standing firmly on the ground. As the kids where coming over last night to get started I mentioned that I no longer keep a ladder here at the house. "No problem, we are bringing Ryan" was their response. And I recalled that some years ago when I was laid up with my back Ryan did come over and hang our lights for us, once again while standing on the ground.

But for Ryan, there is nothing superhuman about it. He can reach the eaves on my house the same way I can reach a light switch. He simply stretches out his hand, and by virtue of the way he is designed, and by virtue of the ability resident within him, his hand goes much farther than most folks. Sort of like the way it is fully within the nature of God to be able to deliver us, keep us, and provide for us. God's hand simply reaches farther.