Tuesday, November 4th, 2003 - Wonderful Small Things

I love a story that I recently read in 2 Kings 5:1-19 - "The Healing of Naaman." Naaman has leprosy, so he goes to the house of the prophet Elisha (successor of Elijah) to ask for healing. Elisha sends one of his messengers to answer the door and tell Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River 7 times, and he will be healed. Doesn't seem so hard....

Naaman responds in anger: "I thought he would surely come out to meet me! I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren't the [2 rivers] of Damascus better than all of the rivers of Israel put together?" He left Elisha's house "in a rage" without washing himself in the Jordan.

Thankfully for Naaman, his officers reasoned with him and persuaded him to go down the local river and wash himself 7 times. Naaman was instantly healed after he did. I took 2 really cool things out of this passage - one way that our perspective is different from God's perspective and a reaffirmation of the importance of fellowship and encouraging friends.

Sometimes we see things so contrary to how God sees them. I can identify many times in my life when I was like Naaman where I wanted God to do something awe-strikingly supernatural. Instead, God desired me to do something else that I would label a "small task." This is how God sees things differently; He takes just as much joy in our obedience in everyday affairs as He does when we are obedient with major life decisions.

As Naaman didn't want to simply go and splash around in the local river, I often don't want to go do my laundry when it needs to be done. Last night, I went to do my laundry and ended up spending 4 hours in the laundry room talking to a drunk guy first about small talk but eventually an in-depth talk about God and the Bible. My perspective sometimes is that I want God to just supernaturally place me in a group of 5 people who are seeking and have Him speak through me and bring them all to Christ; God, on the other hand, told me to do laundry - once again, He further proves His faithfulness.

The importance of fellowship is pretty clearly shown in the passage. Naaman wasn't going to be obedient until his officers persuaded him that he should listen to the prophet. Without their encouragement, he most likely never would have followed God and His will for him.

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