It all started when I asked Carolyn Howard to give a lesson in Relief Society. The focus talk is "Behold, I am a God of Miracles" by Elder Ronald A Rasband. She, in turn, asked me to share the miracle of Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida.
It is found in: Mark 8:22-26:
22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his upon him, he asked him if he saw .
24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
25 After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw clearly.
26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
The first thing that struck me initially is "Ooh, gross! Why did Jesus use spit?"
So I have been thinking about that. Here are my thoughts on that: First of all, life has it's gross moments. That is part of the nature of life on this earth.
Next, even yucky things can have positive uses. Jesus can literally make sweet lemonade from any sort of lemons.
Next, we don't know if spit had any sort of significance to this particular person. Maybe that meant something to him.
Here's another one: Maybe the blind man thought, "Well, I wanted you to help me to see and you put spit on my eyes? This must not be a miracle because this isn't what I was expecting and this isn't how miracles are done.
Interesting also is that this miracle was a gradual process. He put spit on his eyes, and put his hands on him and then he was able to see a little bit- people looked like trees walking around. Then Jesus put His hands on the man's eyes again and then he could see.
It was a process. I don't know why it wasn't done instantaneously. Jesus' most well known miracles are this kind, but I submit that Jesus' most commonly used miracles are the gradual ones. They are just harder to see.
I can see so many applications to this miracle in my life.
The one I think of is when I was dating Kevin. He was a good guy and I enjoyed spending time with him but I didn't feel like we had much in common and I couldn't figure out why he kept asking me out because I didn't feel like he acted like he liked me that much. I just thought, well I will keep going out with him until he stops asking. At one time, he had even sent me a pie or flowers or something. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it because I didn't want to lead him on.
Then, I heard through the grapevine that he felt bad that he had been taking me out and sent me flowers and I hadn't reciprocated. Then I felt bad. It is hard to read other people's reactions or feelings and I must have misread how he felt. Anyway, I felt so bad and was wondering what I could do. I prayed about it in my evening prayers and decided I would invite him over and make dinner for him and then I could tell him thanks for taking me out, etc. but this is it.
Well, he came over and we had a great time. I made dinner and we laughed and talked in the kitchen. Then we he was leaving, it was actually our first kiss. I didn't have the "thanks but no thanks" talk I was planning on after all. Well, the answer to my prayer had a different ending and purpose than I thought. I fell in love with Kevin and we eventually were married.
Here's the gradual miracle part. My love story isn't what I was expecting or how I expected it to look. So I almost missed it.
Miracles are individual and given in a way that will most impact or help the person who is receiving it.
Just like the Pharisees who didn't recognize Jesus when He came because they were expecting something different.
So this miracle in my life took a while to come about because Jesus needed to help me "see".
That is how the miracle of Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida relates to me.
We need to look for the gradual miracles, which since they are gradual, are sometimes harder to see and we need to have God help us see the miracle if it comes or happens in a way that we aren't expecting.
