How smug we are, sifting through our
carefully sourced and meticulously sorted
files of financial institutions, fashion outlets
produce markets and urgent care facilities—
forever certain we know precisely
where to go to acquire whatever we need.
Our vision is so focused on
our pools of Bethesda
we sometimes miss the
wounded hands held out to us
by the Lord. What if the paralytic
trapped in his broken body
for thirty-eight years, balked
at Jesus asking, Do you want
to be made well? and chose
to cling stubbornly to the way
of healing that he knew
when Jesus ordered him to
stand, pick up his mat, and walk?
Likely, he’d have stayed a paralytic.
How often do we remain sick, or
otherwise suffer need because our
minds and hearts are closed to God’s
inexplicable manner of miracle?
Time to set human wisdom in
its place, look up from our own
pools of Bethesda, lift our eyes to
the one with healing in his wings.
We’ve all heard the saying:
It’s not what you know, but who.
John 5:1–8