Mark 7:24-30. Jesus goes to the region of Tyre and Sidon to a house where he hopes to be private for a while, but "he could not be hid." Immediately a Greek woman comes to him and asks him to drive the demon from her possessed daughter. Jesus says "Let the children first be fed, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she says even the dogs get crumbs from the children at the table. Because she says this, Jesus cures her daughter. "For saying this you may go your way... And she went home, and found the child lying in bed, and the demon gone."

I relate to Jesus wanting to be alone for a while but being unable to find privacy! I like how Mark describes it as "he could not be hid." Of course he couldn't! He is God on earth. I can't even imagine the power, and the light, and the love, and the almost magnetic force that must have been emanating from him. But he was a human being as well and he really did need time alone.

This teaches me so much. God knew that Jesus would need time alone and he made sure he got it when the time was right. But God also knew that his Son came to earth to help us and so he allows the intrusion into Jesus' alone time when the intrusion is more important. That means that this lowly, Greek woman was more important than Jesus' alone time! How important we all are to God!

Jesus would have known this too, but his initial reaction is meant to test her faith. Did she really believe,  or was she just seeking the latest fad in hopes that it might help? Again, Jesus knows the answer to this question, but his conversation with this woman is instructive for us and for all of humanity. Even though God has a chosen people, even though the baptized are now the chosen, even though God is working at all times to protect and save his people, despite all these things, those who have not yet had the benefit of knowing Jesus or the faith are welcome as well. They also can and will be saved if they truly come to believe. Often the way they come to believe is through miracles.

God will perform these miracles if someone asks in true faith, if they show the slightest inclination to believe in him. When he does, even someone receiving but the crumbs knows that even those crumbs are worth more than anything that they have yet pursued.