I was babysitting my pastor’s younguns earlier this week. Of course, they know Sue Thomas, but only the real one, the white haired lady stuck in the wheelchair who would sit in the back of the church and sing off key, but who always opened her arms wide with a big grin asking them for hugs whenever they would slip by during the worship service.

When I discovered they had never watched Sue Thomas FBEYE, we quickly discovered it on one of their streaming platforms and with an assortment of salties, (Sue always insisted that fans watch the show with her all-time favorite movie snack, hot buttered popcorn) and a bevy of blankets (In mid August?) we settled down and watched the first couple of episodes.

The first two episodes are the original Pilot, and are always fun to watch with others because many of those details of Sue’s growing up years are spot on with her true life story. The kids kept asking me, “Did that really happen?”

Then she moves to DC to work for the FBI, and Charlie, who owns the garage, is the first Washingtonian that she meets. Dear Charlie. I actually think he’s my favorite character in the whole series. His gravelly personality covers a very tender and hurting heart.

‘Sue’ might be missing one of her five senses, hearing, but it just means that her other senses have become sharper. As she is watching Charlie’s lips to see what he is saying, she is also able to read what Charlie is not saying.

I often saw this in the real Sue. She had a sixth sense about people. Somewhere and somehow she could read between the lines. Those casual chattery things we all say create the script of life. We are all more comfortable talking about Chef Raul’s Burritos and pork rinds. As long as we can fill the awkward moments with some kind of vocal vibrations, it can become a good cover up for what’s really going on inside.

But, in this episode, ‘Sue’ was not only reading Charlie’s lips, but his heart. When she asked how long his wife had been gone, he knew exactly to the day. (Does anyone remember off the top of their head what he said?)

And what makes Sue so special is that she does not shy away from bringing up subjects that really matter. As I watched with the kids it was this next scene that spoke volumes to me and brought tears to my eyes.

Once more, and just like what the real Sue Thomas often did, the character ‘Sue’ spoke what she saw. “You must really miss her.”

“Yes,” Charlie replied. “Only from the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep.”

Many times we fill the air with unimportant surface talk, when inside we are crying out for someone to notice and acknowledge something that we are feeling very deeply.

It can be terrifying, though. Terrifying for both the asker and the asked. It’s opening the emotional door to an unknown room and you don’t know what you’re going to find on the other side.

But Sue goes for it. “You must really miss her.”

It’s not only Sue’s keen observation but also on her part it’s a stab in the dark. She is shooting from the hip and it is a shot in the silence. She doesn’t know how he will respond but she says it anyway.

And Charlie? He could have denied it, or shrugged it off as unimportant. After all, Sue is just a customer who came to the garage with a problem of her own. He is Mr Fix-It, after all.

Plus, it’s too deep and too personal. What difference would it even make to tell this new customer who just walked through the door about his sweet Thelma? This stranger had never even met her!

But he was bursting to share with someone who genuinely cared. He didn’t fall apart. He replied with one line. And it contained his whole heart.

“Only from the time I wake up in the morning until I fall asleep.” Yes. He missed her.

Although the real Sue Thomas was profoundly deaf and could not hear a single sound, she really was a great listener. She read between the lines, and was not afraid to dig in there and find out what was really going on in the recesses of the heart.

It’s something I sorely miss about her. She was real about her own struggles and joys, and she expected others to be real in return.

1st Corinthians 3.2 sums it up well. Why settle for milk when we could and should be enjoying rich meat in our relationships with each other, and with Jesus!

Listen to Jesus’ own words, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”

Or, as another translation puts it, “We will share a meal together as friends.” NLT Revelation 3.20

The invitation is there. To be real, with Jesus and with our friends. We just have to open the door.

It’s like the line by ‘Sue’ near the end of the episode, “Why settle for pork rinds when you can have meatloaf?”

Except the real Sue Thomas didn’t even like meatloaf! She would rather eat ribeye steak!