April 6 ~ 2 Kings 5:10-14
Elisha sent out a servant to meet him with this message: “Go to the River Jordan and immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you’ll be as good as new.”
Naaman lost his temper. He turned on his heel saying, “I thought he’d personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. The Damascus rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel. Why not bathe in them? I’d at least get clean.” He stomped off, mad as a hornet.
But his servants caught up with him and said, “Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn’t you have done it? So why not this simple ‘wash and be clean’?”
So he did it. He went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following the orders of the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was like the skin of a little baby. He was as good as new.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
This afternoon, my husband and I took Timothy, Zola, Nathan and their mother to the park to play. I packed dried cereals, some graham cracker teddy bears, raisins, a few “cuties” oranges, and some juice and water for a “snack. The last time we went to the park, the children got hungry, and I had not taken any food or drinks. So this time, we had a “picnic” when they grew restless… then they played a little while longer.
This was not fancy, by any means. I didn’t spend a lot of time baking cookies or preparing just the right snacks. I threw some things I had on hand into some plastic containers, grabbed a stack of paper plates and napkins and a package of wet wipes, and declared it a “picnic.” The children ate as if they were at a fancy party. They were perfectly satisfied with the fare and the company. We told them it was a “picnic,” and that was sufficient. Almost two years ago, Timothy and I sat under this same pavilion at a lavish 3-year-old birthday party for a fellow daycare student. There was a beautifully sculpted cake, other foods and drinks, candy, party favors and more. But I don’t think Timothy enjoyed that any more than he enjoyed today’s outing.
So often, we try to complicate things. And nowhere do we do this more than in our spiritual life. We say, “All we can do is pray,” when prayer is all that is necessary! Some of us feel like we have not truly “worshipped” if we have not dressed in suit and tie and our “Sunday best” and sat in a sanctuary where we were called to recite prayers and scriptures en masse and stand and sit at appointed times. We call on God to help us… to heal us… to answer our prayers… and then we stand back and wring our hands and wait on some astonishing, all-knowing “sign” – all the while failing to recognize how and where He has worked in our lives already! In other words, we expect the party with the lavish cake and favors instead of a simple family picnic.
We are all Naaman… and our excuses run the gamut. But the bottom line is that too many of us are looking for some big, magnificent display from God and totally missing Him in the process. Where have you made excuses? Where have you looked past what God is doing – or wants to do – in your life and totally missed Him? Isn’t it time to start looking at the simplest things and truly seeing God… wherever and whenever He shows up in your life? Aren’t you ready to “wash and be clean?”
©2013 Debbie Robus
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