The Miracle Map, Part 2
“They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man’s eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’ Once more Jesus put His hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, ‘Don’t even go into the village.’” Mark 8:22-26 (NIV)
It’s fascinating to study the miracles of Jesus and exciting to read about the many wonders He performed as He went about teaching, preaching and healing every kind of disease. When we examine the miracles of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, some recurring principles begin to emerge that can help us understand His miracles better and experience the miracle we need in our own lives. I call these recurring principles The Miracle Map. We looked at two of those principles yesterday:
1. God always starts with the miracle you need most.
2. The miracle you need most leads you to what you really need most – a deeper relationship with God.
The most challenging principle of the Miracle Map is the third one: God works miracles in His time and in His way. This third principle in the Miracle Map really comes down to letting God be God. That’s challenging when you’re a control freak like me. We want a miracle on our terms, and we think we know how God should do it. But more often than not, a miracle doesn’t happen in the way we expect it. Sometimes God does His greatest work in the shadows, hidden behind a dark providence. Providence is the Divine dance with creation – You take His hand and follow His lead. Providence is God acting in the shadows performing the miracle in His way and in His time. Providence leads us on the Miracle Map to the dark places where we can’t see God at work or feel His presence, yet it is there where we grow the most as we learn to trust Him.
As you study the miracles of Jesus, you’ll discover that He never healed anyone the same way. There was no magical formula for miracles. He always worked miracles in His time and in His way. In the miracle we examined yesterday, Jesus healed a blind man by simply speaking to him. Mark records another blind man being healed in a different way altogether. In this healing, Jesus takes the man by the hand leading him outside the village where He then “spits” on the man’s eyes and puts His hand on him and asked him if he could see anything. I’ve often wondered what that man must have thought and felt when Jesus did that. Sometimes God works in the most unusual and unexpected ways. This expands our understanding of the mystery of how God works. In Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) God says, “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Truly, God works miracles in His time and in His way.
The miracle healing for this blind man becomes even more curious when the first touch of Jesus didn’t produce clear vision. The man told Jesus, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” Mark tells us that Jesus then touched the blind a second time and now he could see clearly! Why did Jesus spit in the man’s eyes? Why did He have to touch the man twice for him to be healed? As you seek the miracle you need most, let God be God. Allow God to be as original in your own life as He is in others. Don’t try to put Him in a box. His ways are higher than your ways and His thoughts higher than your thoughts. Someone once told me, “When you can’t see God’s hand, you can trust His heart.” Today, you can trust His heart. As you pray for the miracle you need most, let God give you the miracle in His time and in His way.