But his mother began to weep. She said to Tobit: "Why have you decided to send my child away? Is he not the staff to which we cling, ever there with us in all that we do? I hope more money is not your chief concern! Rather let it be a ransom for our son! What the Lord has given us to live on is certainly enough for us." (Tobit 5: 18-19)

If I were the neighbor hearing and looking on, I would agree with the wife and mother. Home, food, one another... this is enough.

Tobit is more ambitious. He is willing to risk more to have more. What more is he seeking?

Before the exile he risked social and political exclusion in continuing to worship at the Jerusalem temple. Why did he do so?

After exile to Nineveh Tobit risked much by caring for those who had died. As a result for awhile he lost everything except wife and child.

Then Tobit is blinded. He is embittered. He abuses his wife. She questions his integrity. In despair he prays to be allowed to die.

God responds to Tobit and to another Tobit does not know through an old memory, sending an archangel in disguise, and offering Tobiah an adventure.

Tobit may be a man of mixed motives fully capable of self-serving silliness. But he is also a man of faith who engages and actively responds to God.