Scripture Reading: John 5:1-30, Exodus 20:8-11, Luke 6:1-11
I’ll never forget the day I sat down to study my Bible and discovered my toddler had beaten me to the pages. Scribble marks adorned two chapters in Luke—big loopy scribbles in permanent blue ink. “Oh, no!” reverberated within. This was my favorite Bible, the one I spent time with daily over a hot cup of coffee. I was learning to do inductive study with this Bible and marking key words with care. I’d cringe if I had to erase a bit of colored pencil, knowing it wouldn’t be clean. But this was more than a smudged word. Two entire pages had been ruined.
I sat my little girl on my lap to explain gently that she couldn’t color in mommy’s Bible. She’d meant no harm, of course, but this was a teachable moment. She couldn’t go around taking pen to paper in books around the house.
But in that moment, the Lord graciously spoke to my heart. My daughter hadn’t taken a pen to any other books, only this book. She was modeling what she’d seen.
“Sweetie, were you ‘studying’ like Mommy?”
She smiled, nodding her head big.
It became my teachable moment. Instead of focusing on “the rules” or my angst over the pages, I could see the bigger picture. God had been moving in my little girl’s heart, drawing her to His Word. She wanted to interact with it in the only way she knew how. Lifting my focus helped me to see God at work, which changed everything.
It’s often easy to miss God’s hand at work, just as many did when Jesus walked the earth. I’m astounded when I read of the man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda because of the scene afterward. People had seen this man lying around for thirty-eight years, and suddenly he was walking. Yet no one asked, “Wow! What happened? How were you cured?” No one praised God that he’d been delivered from decades of infirmity. Instead, the healed man is chastised for carrying his pallet on the Sabbath. And the Jewish leaders want to know, not who cured him, but who had the audacity to tell him to pick up his pallet and walk with it (John 5:12).
Jesus, the Son of God, was there among them. A miracle had been done in their midst. Yet focusing on the rules of the Sabbath, they missed the Lord of the Sabbath.
How often do we do the same? How often are we so focused on one side of a circumstance that we miss God’s purposes altogether?
Jesus is the author of life. And He brings not only life but also light, grace, and glory into that which seems dead, dark, and overwhelming (Ac 3:15, 2Co 4:6). We’re told to walk by faith and not by sight (2Co 5:7) because when our eyes are faith-filled, we see the divine. We see God.
Jesus is always working in every facet of our lives and the lives of those around us. Let’s pray to keep our eyes fixed on Him so that we can behold every moment.
Written by Kim Cash Tate
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4 thoughts on "Healing on the Sabbath"
John 6:19 “Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.'”
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Although children copy what the adults in their lives do imperfectly, Jesus perfectly does what He sees His Father doing.
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Also, Jesus repeated this phrase He said to the woman at the well when talking to the Pharisees, “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here.”
In God’s kingdom, the dead (spiritually?) are being raised to life.
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MARI V – continued prayers for your friend dealing with a hurt.
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LYNNE FROM AL – continued prayers for your daughter and the team in Croatia.
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SANDI – continued prayers for your sister’s friend’s husband.
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TAMI – so happy to hear there is some movement on gaining understanding for yiu and your husband. Praying thus course brings you together.
My nearly 2 year old great grandson, copies everything! He will repeat words, action, sounds. If he sees it, he can do or say it!
The other day as we travelled towards town, i mentioned raindrops on the window..
He said..”I not got raindrops on my window..” i smiled with joy that he had even used the word correctly in a sentence.
When i saw his mum the following day, she said he was looking out of the window of the car and said to her..”I got raindrops on my window..” she asked him where he learnt that big word.. he said ” Nana, showed me..”
Out of the mouths of babes!!!
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We can often take their actions to be naughty, Lorenzo, kicked his wendy house door, his daddy told him off. He had seen me do it, not in anger, but lazyness, a small tap on the corner to close it properly.
Context, right..
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Absolutely, ears and eyes truly need to be open, to the miracles and the extraordinary, if we are too into our own thoughts, we could miss these. And what a sadness, what a loss to ones heart, soul, mind, life!
God gifts us goodness every day. He gifts us the unimaginable, the ‘amazing, what, how did that happen’ too, oftentimes, we look for BIG when small will do, for its believing in the small, that the BIG can also be seen!
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I am thankful that through the small gift, aged nearly 2, I can get to see more of Gods grace, love, light, and absolute glory..
My heart sings each day as I see Jesus at work in and around me in all aspects of my life and day..
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BUT GOD..
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It is well.
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Amen.
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Much love,
Tina..♥️
Lovely story, Tina ❤️ Their minds are sponges at this age! Amazing to watch them learn, and we get a lesson on being careful what we say and do.
Just came to mind that non believers watch us just as carefully as 2 year olds … be sure to honor the Lord in what we say and do.
Amen