Mark 7...some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.
33After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). 35At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
“I called on the Lord and got an answer.” That’s what the ancestors would say. I ask the Lord to do something for me and it always includes some circuitous route. I refer to them as fiery hoops. It is not enough that I have to do something but it includes two or three extra degrees of difficulty. Or is it my imagination?
33After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. 34He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!" ). 35At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
“I called on the Lord and got an answer.” That’s what the ancestors would say. I ask the Lord to do something for me and it always includes some circuitous route. I refer to them as fiery hoops. It is not enough that I have to do something but it includes two or three extra degrees of difficulty. Or is it my imagination?
For someone to pull you to the side, put spit on your tongue and place their fingers in your ears, no, I’m sorry place their fingers in your ears and then spit on your tongue sounds, like ughh. This man’s grace comes in a disgusting package. Grace disguises itself and is presented in forms I find repulsive sometimes. (Watch out, I am about to twist this text.) When approached by others who give me an explanation they may say something like, “It is God’s will” or “this is the perfect will of God for your life.” Hungh? Is that right!? Excuse me. Does the “perfect will” have to be so disgusting or painful? God is this some kind of prefect will joke, because the pain is too much. It is so painful it makes me vomit. It can bring on visceral pain for me and cramps don’t come close to describing the discomfort. But still I am resigned that the events have something to do with grace.
The man hears, the child awakes, the daughter is delivered are all scenarios from Mark. Such happy endings, nobody died, nobody took Ritilin and no signers needed. Jesus is a miracle worker. I have a dead child and a father who is disintegrating before my eyes while trying to make amends for fifty years of neglect at the same time. I call my dilemma the man without a son and the son without a father syndrome. What disgusting medicine does God have for this? Grace. That is all I see.
When I think of the issues of my life it seems that no matter how angry of sad I am I look around and the world is an extension of God’s grace. There are some many remedies for what ails me out there and I have learned to look and listen for them. Sometimes I can’t hear them, I can only see them and at other times I can not see them I can only hear them. “It” may not look or taste good but when digested in the right portion it goes down bitter but proves to be sweet in the end. It has gone in and not defiled me and comes out in the form of living water.
I use the ugliness of my life to share Grace with others. I have learned that God’s goodness out performs the sometime ugly “will” people speak of. I allow time to impact my pain and with patience I experience what the deaf man experienced, grace.