Once you’ve been a Christian for a while, it is possible to become so familiar with the Bible stories that you no longer see how God often works in weird ways. Here are just a few examples:
- God speaks through both a burning bush and a donkey
- God takes a prophet into heaven on the best first-class flight of all time – a flying chariot
- God allows barren elderly women and one virgin to become mothers
And, we read this account of Jesus giving sight to a blind guy in John 9:6-7, “…he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
Jesus could have simply healed the guy. Instead, He undertook a five-step process that they never teach you in Bible college:
Step 1 – spit a big loogy on the ground
Step 2 – pick up said loogy and dirt and mix it together in your hands until it is mud
Step 3 – rub the mud loogy in the eyes of a blind guy
Step 4 – make the poor blind guy walk a long distance to a pool of water so he can wash the mud loogy out of his blind eye
Step 5 – the blind guy will be healed and see for the first time in his life
It’s odd, right?
To be sure, our Savior is not like Spock. Spock only does that which is logical, predictable, and efficient. Our Savior is fond of doing what which is unusual, unpredictable, and inefficient.
Why? Because it is often His way of testing our faith. To be healed, this man had to trust in Jesus’ commands enough to find his way, though still blind, to the pool and wash his face. Only after trusting in God did he experience healing from God. The same is true for you and me. God is often at work in our lives, but in unpredictable ways that call us to fully trust even when we don’t fully understand.
How have you seen God work in odd ways in your life?