A Blind Man, A Dead Man, & the Glory of God [Devotion]
As I sit down to write this week's update I am put in mind of a couple passages of scripture John 9:3 & John 11:4. In John 9 Jesus' disciples have just asked him if the man born blind was born that way because of the sin of his parents or because of his own, "Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.'" And we hear something similar when Jesus is told that His good friend Lazarus is sick, "But when Jesus heard it he said, 'This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.'" Both of these verses contain a theme we see throughout scripture, God uses the trials and even the tragedies that His people go through to show just how powerful He is! Abraham and Sarah's inability to have a child made God's gift of Isaac even more miraculous than the gift of life already is! The people of Israel being caught between Pharaoh and the Red Sea meant that God showed His power over nature in a way that was unmistakably divine! The people running out of food in the wilderness meant the gift of manna was irrefutably His handiwork! The man being born blind lead to a powerful testimony to who Jesus was (John 9:30-33) and the death of Lazarus lead to one of the greatest and most revealing of all of Jesus' miracles (John 11:43-44). And what is so beautiful is that it is through our weaknesses and inability that His ability shows through (not that we should try to be weak or incapable). 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says, "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." I pray that God uses our insufficiency in this project to show His sufficiency, that our inability shows His ability, that our small ideas show the expansive scope of His plan. To God be the glory!