Day Fifty-Four – February 20, 2020  

Read:

This is an interesting miracle story.  This is the only time in all the gospels in which Jesus’ attempt to heal someone was not immediately effective. 

 

Did you catch that in the story? The first time Jesus touched the man, putting saliva on his eyes, that the man’s vision was restored, but not perfect.  The man says he can see people, but they look like trees walking around.  Jesus lays his hands on him again and this time his sight was restored. 

 

What do you make of the two times? Was Jesus’ miracle ineffective the first time? Was it incomplete?  Is there a meaning behind the partial healing the first time? 

 

Some scholars think that the two-stage healing was intentional to show that the vision of the disciples is still incomplete.  Even though he has been telling them who he is and that he must suffer and die, they do not yet fully understand. They are still unclear about the kind of Messiah Jesus will be and what the kingdom of God on earth looks like.  Like the blind man, the disciples need a second touch.

 

I think we are a lot like the blind man and the disciples.  We need a second touch by Jesus.  God will teach me a lesson that I don’t quite understand, and then God will expand on it.  This can lead to an “aha” moment, when I finally catch on (and I’m oh so glad that God is patient with slow learners like me!).

Can you think of a time in your life when it took you awhile to learn a new skill like driving a car, riding a bike, learning to knit?  Why would we assume that our faith would be different than that learning process?  We want faith to be instantaneous and for us to immediately know and understand God.  I think faith is much more like a two-step process, or a hundred-step process. 

What lessons are you learning during this season of your life?  How is God reinforcing and expanding on those lessons so that you truly understand?

 

Music:

Everyday

Make Me A Captive Lord – by George Matheson

1)Make me a captive Lord and then I shall be free
Force me to render up my sword and I shall conqueror be
I sink in life’s alarms when by myself I stand
Imprison me within Thine arms and strong shall be my hand

 2) My heart is weak and poor until its master find
It has no spring of action sure. It varies with the wind
It cannot freely move till Thou has wrought its chain
Enslave it with Thy matchless love and deathless it shall reign

 3) My power is faint and low till I have learned to serve
It wants the needed fire to glow. It wants the breeze to nerve
It cannot drive the world until itself be driven
Its flag can only be unfurled when Thou shalt breathe from heaven

4) My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine
If it would reach a monarch’s throne it must its crown resign
It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife
When on Thy bosom it has leant and found in Thee its life

 

Prayer Focus:

Talk with God about what you learning, and what you want to learn.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Karen Bruins