Seeing Beyond the Problem

Use Your Sixth Sense!  

One of my favorite movies...with an extra special scene--unforgettable!

Patch checks himself into a mental hospital, and while he is there, an eccentric, yet brilliant scientist confronts everyone by holding up four fingers and then asking: "How many fingers do you see?"
When the obvious answer is given, "4," he calls them a derogatory name and stomps off.  Only he possesses the secret!  Patch is treated to the same puzzle.  But with this exception.  Patch goes to the man's room and asks, "Tell me about the fingers."  He is ignored until he puts a "patch" on the man's coffee cup so it does not run out on the guy's papers.  That little touch of problem solving earns the man's favor.  Once again, he holds up the fingers and teaches Patch to look beyond the problem to him.  It does not matter how many fingers are held up because we need to use the sixth sense of looking past where the problem is said to be.  How many fingers?  It does not matter....only that Patch gives the incorrect answer which demonstrates that he is in fact looking past where the problem is supposed to be.

This is also one of the best illustrations of grace.  Life is a supreme gift.  It comes from outside of us.  We ourselves are not our own Makers--though some would try to make it seem so.  Grace is seeing past the problems of life to the Giver of Life.