Forensic scientist Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth are sitting on the back of their opened SUV going over their last case, during which both became attached to a young infant whose mother had been killed. Booth discovers some documents in the back of the SUV and questions Brennan about them. Brennan, the ever only-give-me-what-I-can-see scientist, was affected by her attachment to the baby--and that affected how she came to see the small, economically devastated town in which the baby lives. Throughout the episode, Brennan's been trying to figure out what to do with the "seven-figures" she's getting for her next novel, and the documents are from a structural engineer about rebuilding the bridge in the town in which the baby lives. The bridge would bring tourists and others back into the severed community and revitalize its economy. Brennan's decided to fund the rebuilding. Booth is touched:
Booth: You know, I thought you said that towns lived and died like organisms and sometimes we should just let them go.
Brennan: And sometimes all it takes is one thing, like a bridge, for a town to start recovering.
--from the "Baby in the Bough "episode of Bones
I really liked this scene at the end of tonight's episode of Bones because it illustrates what happens when we start to pay attention to and "be in the room" with those around us. Brennan was forced to pay attention to the baby when it came into her care (a stretch in believability, but I can deal with that), and she started to actually grow in affection for him. When she started to care for the baby, she started to care about where he came from and the people who lived around him. And that affected how she looked at the situation in which the town lived. She knew she could do something about it, so she did.
But we don't need to build a literal bridge at the cost of seven-figures to make a difference in the lives of others. When we pay attention to those around us and start to care about them and others around them, we can build all kinds of bridges, big and small, from holding open a door to opening our home to taking the time to listen when someone else is talking. It's all about paying attention to what is going on around us--to what God is up to--and then just joining in. And indeed, sometimes that's all it takes for one life to start recovering.
And, while this episode doesn't touch on it so much, here's something else that happens when we pay attention: we start to notice the bridges coming our way, too. It's a grand world, this Kingdom of God's. I'm loving it more and more.
(Image: Fox via Wikipedia) miscctgy