“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.’ Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.’
“So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, ‘Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.’ He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?’ And they reviled him, saying, ‘You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man answered, ‘Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes…
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.’ He said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and he worshiped him.” John 9:13-16,24-30,35-38
What’s more amazing: that a man blind from birth is healed in an instant, or that a people bent on tradition and legalism are angry it would be done on their Sabbath? That a helpless man is healed by mercy, or that onlookers would care more about the what and how and where? Only the one who had been healed recognized the upended wonderment that was transpiring. His eyes now opened to faith, he could see clearly their duplicitous religiosity.
The measure of our understanding of God’s ways determines how dumbfounded we are at His work. When the one thing we know is truth, we will not get tripped up on all the things we do not know and cannot figure out. When we marvel at who God is and what He’s done, our rebel can’t becomes may. When we know He is strong and kind, we are never baffled at His goodness to us. We desire to know Him better and glorify Him more, and take steps of faith to those ends.
When we pray specifically, are we surprised at His answers? Could it be that although we claim to trust in Him, we worry more than we trust? Or we trust our own ideas more than we do His plans? Where are we tripped up by innuendos we can’t decipher or situations we can’t figure out, rather than taking the opportunity to ask the Lord to increase our faith? What insignificances will we set aside to wonder at Him?
Lord, turn my nay-saying and doubts into wholehearted belief that You are good, and all You do is good. (Psalm 119:68)
As the rain and snow 