Tobit 6: 2-9, Luke 9:1-6
My brother loves playing video games like Final Fantasy. One element of games like Final Fantasy is that the characters often gather items like fish or clothing materials or things that would later be used to create weapons. In today’s passage from Tobit, Tobias catches a fish and Raphael tells Tobias to save the gall, heart, and liver since those parts can be used for medicine. Tobias follows Raphael’s instructions, but also saves the parts of the fish that he can eat for the road ahead.
Raphael explains that the heart and the liver can be used to help someone afflicted by an evil spirit while the gall can be used to restore sight to the blind. Tobias could’ve gone back home at this point since he has the cure for his father’s blindness. However, his duty to his father came first.
There’s a similar passage in the New Testament in which Jesus instructs his disciples about what to do when they go out to heal the sick and exorcise demons. “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Luke 9:3-4
It’s a little different from the instructions that Raphael gave to Tobias, but the sentiment is the same. Jesus is asking his disciples to prepare themselves for the journey ahead. Since the disciples have Him, they didn’t require anything else. Tobias in a similar way, just took what he needed and left behind what wasn’t necessary.
My mom always likes to remind everyone to make sure that we brought everything we need with us whenever we travel. It’s annoying and makes her come off as a nag, but when we get to our destination and I realize I forgot my hair dryer, she gives me that “I told you so” look. Moms always know best, after all.
If you make time to pray today, ask God to be your compass on this journey we call life.
STUDY QUESTIONS: What do you need to take with you on your journey? Do you need to take more things with you or do you feel that you can get by with what you have now? Do you consider yourself to be an organized person or do you feel like being organized restricts you? Or are you too organized and inflexible? What are some ways you think you can find balance and be organized while still being flexible to the unexpected?
