God Incidents
It is enough to be told to believe?
When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet's own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my little boy dies." Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, "Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him." The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee. - John 4:43-54
All of these stories of Jesus encountering people in need are about one thing, Faith.
"Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe."
Jesus is telling us we don't need these things to believe, and we can probably agree with that, but what if we need His help?
What if we feel we are ambling along blindly, believing He is there to help us, without knowing for sure?
What if we need a sign?
First, I believe the help Jesus sends us comes in many forms. It is up to us to have faith that this help is what we asked for.
For example, you are struggling with fear while waiting for your cancer treatment and you pray for God's help. A nurse's aide comes and offers you a warm blanket.
Is that not a sign that God is listening and responding?
What God heard is, "Help me with my fear."
If we look closely at the Gospel reading, we can see that the request the man gave Jesus was different than what Jesus offered him.
The man requested that Jesus go down to Capernaum with him to heal his boy.
Jesus told the man to go and believe the boy has been healed.
Wow!
What faith that took. The man had to go in faith that what he had hoped for would actually happen, that the boy would live.
You could argue that the man knew the boy would be cured because Jesus told him, but what about us?
What do we know when God talks to us through those He sends?
Maybe it is not Jesus who comforts us, but someone else.
Can we shake the fear like dust from our sandals, and move on?
There are some who believe God is passive, that God does nothing, knowing we will soon be with Him.
But I don't agree with that. God's Spirit is alive and living in us, doing everything possible and maybe a few things impossible to help us.
If our goal is aligned with God's, amazing things can happen.
They are not coincidences, but God incidents.
More to come...