Over and Under

For the last few months I have been working a TV truck on Sunday mornings putting a church service on cable TV. We have to run nine cables from the jack panel on the rig to a box on the exterior wall of the church. (Three for power, three for cameras, two for program audio, one for intercom) As every video newby soon finds out, production is as much about stringing out and recoiling cables as it is about running cameras and pushing buttons on fancy gear. Another thing the newby must learn early on is the over and under technique of coiling a cable. In the days of thick-as-your-thumb multicore camera cables one had to do it this way or the cable simply could not be wound up. It's easier to show than to describe, but as one coils the cable, one loop goes over the incoming line and puts a half twist in it, then the next one goes under the incoming line and puts a half twist the other way, and back and forth and so on. This keeps the cable from getting kinked up and ruined, lets it store flat and neat, and allows it to be strung out again without tangling (as long as one gets that technique right as well). If one sees a person wrapping a cable around their elbow, it's a sure sign of lack of training. That's a great way to destroy a cable. The technique is equally advantageous for ropes and garden hoses. But I digress.

There is a little courtyard area on the side of the church where we usually coil up the cables after the shoots. There is a statue of Jesus there (or it might be Peter, but I like to think it's Jesus). I always get a kick out of it as we are taking good care of our cables because Jesus is holding a fishing net with a coil of rope. I always say that's Jesus coiling cables with us. And the other guys are quick to point out that he knows how to over and under, his coil is perfect.

We know that the disciples were for the most part working class men. Jesus, in his humanity, was of lowly social class, though his heritage went back to the greatest king of Israel, David. I'm reminded of those stories of a king going out among his subjects incognito wearing peasant garb and finding out what it was like to live in his kingdom. Time and again I am encouraged by Hebrews chapter 4. He knows all about what I go through. Not just because he is omniscient God, but in the grit of his humanity. I can't express how much that means to me. He really does know how to over and under.