The Simple Things

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed!'” – 2 Kings 5:13

A pagan Assyrian military leader (Naaman) wanted to be healed of leprosy and traveled a great distance to meet Elijah, the prophet of God, in hopes of finding a cure. When Elijah told the unbelieving Naaman to wash three times in the Jordan River, Naaman thought it was a nonsensical thing to do and refused. Apparently, he thought there would be something a little more "magical" or mystical about the healing process. Ultimately, Naaman's servant convinced him to obey Elijah's instructions and was healed.

While there is indeed a certain mystical element to God's work in this world, there is nothing "magical" about it. Be it a work of healing or just the ongoing work of the church, good consistent obedience to God's will goes a long way toward accomplishing His purposes in a person's life. Too often, we sit around waiting for a “miracle” when God expects the miracle of His grace and Spirit-empowerment to be the answer we seek.

The Holy Spirit is always at work, yet from time to time we do get to experience the "Wow!" factor, viewing the unexplainable, but we should not live for it. Often it is the simple things, the little things, the mundane things through which God chooses to accomplish His greatest work.

The sacred moments, the moments of miracle, are often the everyday moments, the moments which, if we do not look with more than our eyes or listen with more than our ears reveal only a gardener, a stranger coming down the road behind us, a meal like any other meal. But if we look with our hearts, if we listen with all our being and imagination, what we may see is Jesus himself. – Frederick Buechner