Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Devotion - Thursday, February 6

I like the story in Mark 8:20-26 where it takes Jesus two attempts to heal a blind man.  He makes the first attempt, asks the man "Do you see anything?" and the man replies, "I see men; but they look like trees, walking."  So Jesus tries again.

How quick we are to assume that the way of God is easy, quick, simple.  We are too often schooled to think when God gets involved everything simply falls into place.  We no longer expect effort to be necessary.

Do not confuse this with talk of God's grace.  That does "come" to us; fall in our laps.

But also don't mistake the gift of God's grace as the end of the story.  There are repercussions of that grace - we are sent into the world.  Our going will involve effort and multiple attempts to achieve our ends.

I am not entirely sure of the motivation for including the story of Jesus' double healing efforts in the Gospel narrative, but I am glad it is there.  It prevents me from being too critical of myself when it takes me a second try to get things right.

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