"Look upon the heart-felt desires of your humble servants, Almighty God, and stretch forth the right hand of your majesty to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."
Psalm 42:1-7, 2 Kings 5:1-15b, and Luke 4:23-30
The readings from 2 Kings today reminds me of the joke about the guy in the flood who was waiting for help from God. You can find the joke here. (I can't vouch for what other kind of jokes you might find there, but hopefully they're all clean when you check it out!)
Naaman went to the king of Israel seeking healing, and he was disappointed that he was passed off to a prophet and then to the messenger of a prophet. After all that, the messenger told him all he had to do was wash in the river, and then he'd be healed. After traveling so far to receive such news, Naaman thought he had been tricked and that the waters of his homeland should have been sufficient for his healing.
The truth in this story is that when we ask for something in prayer we're not always ready to accept what is given to us if it doesn't meet our expectations. The the man in the joke waited and waited for God to save him, and he stubbornly waited around too long, not seeing the offerings from others as offerings from God. For Naaman, he expected something complicated and extravagant to be asked of him, and he was ready to ignore Elisha's messenger until his own aide convinced him otherwise.
We can take from this story a reminder that sometimes God works in our life in ways that we don't expect. While Naaman's healing was life-changing, it didn't come about how he thought it would. For us this can be a call to see the ways God might be working in our in unexpected and subtle ways.
1 comment:
We don't all get stone tablets or a rainbow, sometimes we just get that small quiet gentle nudge
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