Small Things

He stood at the edge of the water, just about to step in, but before he did, he couldn't help thinking back over the last few days. He wasn't happy about dipping in this particular water; he still believed the water back home was just as good. But his servants had shamed him into doing this, and so he would do it. If nothing else, it would prove them wrong.

He had come here hoping for a quick cure, an easy healing. He was Naaman, after all, an important military official in the army of Aram. But disease is no respecter of persons, and as if to prove it, the disease of leprosy had struck him. It was a death sentence, and more than that, it was a "loss of life" sentence. No one wanted to be around a person with leprosy. They were exiled outside of normal society.

Then, one day, through a captured servant girl, Naaman had learned of a prophet in Israel who, it was said, could cure people of their leprosy. Naaman was desperate, and once he received permission from his commander, he was off to Israel to see the prophet. But when he arrived, the prophet wouldn't even come out to talk to him. He simply sent him instructions: "Go wash in the river Jordan seven times, and you will be healed."

Naaman was furious. He had come this far for that? He could have washed in the rivers at home; they had better water there anyway! The Jordan was just a mud pool. He had expected some incantation, some ritual, something from the prophet that would be spectacular. Instead, just these instructions: wash in the river Jordan.

Just when he angrily turned to head back home, a servant caught him and said, "If he had told you to do something hard, you would have done it. Why won't you do this simple thing?" Now, Naaman prepared to step into the water. And when he came out, because of his obedience, he was be healed (the whole story is in 2 Kings 5).

What sorts of things have we missed, what healing have we bypassed and what blessings have we not noticed because we were looking for "big things" but God is calling us to simply be obedient in the small things?