Eye Has Not Seen

This story seems paired to the one from Jeremiah a couple weeks back (I have precious little sense of time left over from the Sound of Music push).  A foreign traveller came to Elissa the prophet and nearly went away furious when told simply to bathe in the Jordan River.

The man whose son Jesus cured did better.  But man, what a hard walk that must have been.

The thing is, I know exactly how desperate you are when you finally go to the holy man, to pray for the miracle you know is needed.  Not the simple prayers for the best we send whenever we or those we love are in trouble, but when we know deep down in our bones and our souls that only a rewriting of the rules will save us or those we love most.

To be told to walk home?  It'll be fine, just leave?  No sign but those words.

Nothing magical or mystical or spiritual.  Just the Word Incarnate, Speaking.

The faith and bravery that takes floors me.  And I've balked at the absence of a similar miracle.  The truth though, is that I only briefly had the courage for that kind of faith.  I'm pretty sure in the dawn light I was certain once more that my father would die.

I don't know why God chooses the miracles He does.  I've been angry for a very long time because I don't.

And all my life, I've been waiting for a big magical sign that makes everything clear.  It was my purpose in life for awhile, it was my orientation, it was my faith in miracles and my calling and the life of someone I love.

But every time a big prayer like that has been answered, one way or another, every time my life has turned in the direction God intended and I did not foresee, it's been something simple sliding into place.  A chat in a pool leading to serendipity, a well-timed email to the school that rejected me a few months beforehand, a walk home like a hundred before it (even if it was on a literal hilltop).  A few words on the staircase I've haunted my whole life.

Which reminds me of Elijah's wait for revelation.  When God was not in the bustling storm, the mighty signs but the whispering wind.

In the plain words spoken simply and with no further explanation or light show.  Nothing to aid in your belief, simply the opportunity to trust before the world falls into place.