Too easy?
We can get caught up in the idea of grandiose gestures. That for something to be meaningful it has to be big and loud.
Naaman got himself caught up in that kind of understanding of God – that if God was going to do anything it would be big and profound, something showy would happen. Naaman believed that god, through Elisha, could heal him, but he expected it to be spectacular, not mundane. But sometimes it’s the smallest gestures that are the most meaningful.
Elisha told him to go and wash seven times in the Jordan and he would be healed, but Naaman feels somewhat cheated by that.
I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. (v11)
His servant girl set him straight and points out that if Elisha has wanted him to do something difficult he’d have done it in a flash, so why not something so simple – God can work in many ways.
How about us?
Are we looking for God only in the huge acts, or seeking the “big experience”? Sometimes he does that, but often he is to be found in the simple and ordinary. We can miss so much if we have our hearts and minds set only on spectacular.
Forgive me lord
if I try to dictate how you work;
if I miss what you are doing every day
because I am looking for the spectacular.
Thank you that all your work is special
– help me to see it.
Pam's Perambulation 