Rub Some Dirt On It!

“R

ub some dirt on it!”  This seems to be the answer for any ailment, scratch, bump, bruise, or problem that occurs in the sports world.  Whenever I am with my friends and someone nicks his finger, hits her toe, or gets a scratch, someone will inevitably say, “Rub some dirt on it!”  It makes me wonder if the boys and girls in our best medical labs know that dirt seems to contain some miracle properties that will cure almost anything.  Maybe we should all invest, not in pharmaceutical research, but in the thousands of acres of arid land that comprise west Texas!

But it gets better.  I’ve learned that dirt can also be used to alleviate the pain caused by insults, light ribbing, joking, and the like.  Don’t like a comment someone made to you? Rub some dirt on it!  Are your friends giving you a hard time about being late again to the office?  Rub some dirt on it!  Lost your keys for the hundredth time making you and your wife/husband late for a dinner party?  Heck, just rub some dirt on it and it’ll be ok.

I must confess, I don’t really understand what dirt has to do with any of this!  Believe me, if it were really the panacea all my friends tout it to be, I would take a mud bath instead of a shower each morning.  However, I’ve not noticed that dirt does any good for my ailments but hearing someone say, “Rub some dirt on it”, does make me laugh and it does bring levity and humor to the situation I’m in, making me feel somewhat better.

Now you may be wondering just what rubbing dirt on it (whatever it is) has to do with today’s devotional.  How could their possibly be a connection between plain old dirt and an eternal truth found in God’s word?  Well, let’s open our Bibles and look at a story from John’s gospel where Jesus found a man in need.  Guess what he did?  Yep!  He rubbed some dirt on it and the rest is history!

In chapter 9 of John’s gospel we read the story of how a man born blind was given his sight.  Jesus’ disciples asked what had caused the man’s blindness, his sin or the sin of his parents.  It’s always this way with us, isn’t it? We automatically look for someone to blame when something out of the ordinary happens or when a situation arises that is not “normal”. The people of Jesus’ day did the same thing.  Physical handicaps, disfigurements, and diseases were thought to be the result of sin but Jesus laid all those misconceptions aside when he stated that neither the man’s nor his parents’ sins caused the blindness. Instead, the man was blind so that God’s power and glory could be revealed in him.

Now for the really good part!  In John 9:6-7 we read how Jesus healed this man: “Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes.” Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”

Pay very close attention to the order of events in this passage.  Jesus never asked the man if he wanted to be healed, he just healed him.  He spat on the ground, made mud, spread it on the man’s eyes, told him to go to the pool, and wash.  Everything this man did, he did through faith.  He had never seen Jesus, or anyone else for that matter.  For all he knew this could be a cruel joke, a means for others to extract pleasure from his blindness.  After Jesus rubbed some dirt on it, he told the man to go wash his face.  This was blind faith, literally.  The man could not see where he was going and Jesus never told him he would see after he washed his face!  Nevertheless, the man obeyed and came back seeing.

The eternal truth in this miracle is that God never does things in the way we think they should be done.  To heal blindness, we would never expect God to just “rub some dirt on it.” And that is why we miss so many of God’s blessings.  We want a production; God however gives a private performance.  We want a show; God gives a personal lesson.  At no time are we ever prepared for the manner in which God works.  His ways seem odd to us and sometimes make no sense to our minds.  And that is the point.  He is God; we are not!  He knows how to care for us, He knows our needs, and He will do things in His time and according to His will.  All we have to do is believe and obey.  Will you let God rub some dirt on you today?