Matthew O'Brien and Tina Dineen

Fans of the TV show Scorpion may catch my reference in the title of this post.  For those who don't, I'll explain:

The basic premise of Scorpion is that of a team of eccentric geniuses who save the world every week. :-)  They are led by Walter O'Brien, who has an IQ of 197.  Although they are geniuses, the group's social skills are somewhat, shall we say, lacking.

In the first episode, Walter and the team meet Paige Dineen, a single mother working as a waitress. Walter discovers that Paige's son Ralph is a genius.  He strikes a deal with Paige:  You translate the world for us, and we'll help you understand your son.

That's sort of how I interpret my role in my son's life.

My role is to "translate" Matthew to people around him.  It is to explain why he breaks into game show lines, or who these "people" (mostly fictional characters or TV personalities) are that he talks about.  (He did tell someone that they looked like Emily Prentiss, the character Paget Brewster plays on Criminal Minds.  Thing is, the person he said that to . . . DOES look like her!)

Last night, his prayer request in his youth group was that Spencer Reid, a Criminal Minds character, get out of jail.  I haven't kept up with the show lately, but apparently Spencer is in jail in Mexico for something he may or may not have done.  I am very thankful for the people who work with Matthew in the youth group, because the leader handled his request with sensitivity.

I suggested afterwards that maybe Matthew could pray for the actor who plays Spencer Reid, Matthew Gray Gubler, because he probably needed all the prayers he could get.  (If you work in the entertainment business, I think that's definitely true.)

In recent episodes of Scorpion, Paige has been getting rather frustrated with Walter and has left him to "sink or swim" on his own.  That's sometimes how I feel with Matthew ("not everyone wants to hear about the last episode of Jeopardy!")  But, Paige is coming to understand her role not only as Walter's "translator", but as Walter's friend.

I don't know if Matthew will ever learn the "language" of the world around him, but I hope my "translating" has done some good.

Until then, I'm sure Matthew will be sending up more prayers for Spencer Reid, and God will smile at those prayers and understand the heart that those prayers come from.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.