Touch

Robert and I just started watching a new tv show called "Touch." (For those of you who suffered through "the longest day of our lives" with Jack Bauer in "24," you'll recognize the main actor, Kiefer Sutherland.) I found the premise very interesting. His (Kiefer Sutherland's) 11 year old son is autistic, and has never spoken, but he thinks in numbers and can spot mathematical patterns everywhere. Every person and series of events is connected, and this boy can spot all the patterns and "invisible threads" that link them together. He figures out how to communicate this to his father through patterns of numbers, and the father has to stop certain events from happening - or make sure that other events do happen.

It made me think a lot about the idea that certain people on totally opposite sides of the planet who have never met are linked by invisible connections that change all of their lives. According to this show, it is "the Universe" (whatever vague entity that may be...it kind of reminds me of "the Force" from Star Wars, both indefinable and impersonal) that connects these people together and contains the hidden mathematical patterns that calculate their connections. Surprising as it may sound, I found this completely plausible. I just believe the source is something - or rather, Someone - far more specific than "the Universe." God created everything - people, continents, space, time, the past, the present, and the future. I believe He sees it all from the outside. Is it stretching too far to believe He has orchestrated, down to the exact moment and location, the events of our lives, the people we meet, the things that happen to us - or don't happen to us?

In one scene (hopefully I'm not giving too much away), the main character has been searching for a specific phone number at a specific location at a specific time. He arrives at the place only to discover that another person is using the pay phone he has been so desperately searching for. He tries to persuade the man that he needs the phone - it's a matter of life and death - but he ends up getting into a fistfight with the man over the phone instead! The essential minute passes and, distraught, he returns home thinking he has missed that crucial moment forever. Imagine his shock when he sees on the news the same man he fought with, who has  just saved a bus-load of children from certain death. The momentary delay their struggle afforded caused the man to miss his train, thus placing him in exactly the right place at the right time. This reminds me so much of how God works. What both men saw as trouble, a delay, a missed opportunity turned out to be instrumental in the saving of others. How many jobs have we not gotten, people have we not married, places have we not gone, or things have we not done that seemed like failures at the time, only to discover later how much God has used them for our benefit, to give us something so much better? It gives me such great hope to think all my steps are guided and ordained by Someone who loves me so much and has such an amazing plan for my life, even when I can't see it at the moment.

While "Touch" is missing the essential point of the Great God of the Universe being the one to orchestrate all these events, it does have some very positive elements. (Based on the 2 episodes that I've watched...it's brand-new, so I can only judge based on the limited evidence I have so far!) I like that it's optimistic- people who don't know each other affecting each other's lives in positive ways, caring about people they've never met, saving people they have no selfish motivation to save. People making each other better, even through momentary interaction. So many popular tv shows are about the pursuit of justice after a crime has been committed, and while I believe that's important, sometimes it can get very depressing. This show is all about ordinary people preventing bad things from happening to others. I like it because it's hopeful. Thus far, it gets a big thumbs up from me.