Healing Is A Process by Chavonn Shen

Healing Is A Process

**Chavonn Williams Shen**

Day 1 of 4: SPIT

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
-Mark 8:22-23 (NIV)

Let’s talk about spit and how amazing it is!

Spit keeps your mouth healthy. It’s the first step of the digestive process, as it helps break down your food. Spit is antimicrobial. Not producing enough spit increases your risk for tooth decay.

That’s all to say, healing a person with spit isn’t completely without reason (though definitely seek medical help before trying to heal your own wounds with spit).

In today’s verses, Jesus healed a blind man by spitting on eyes, then putting his hands on him. But Jesus didn’t heal the man right the first time, as the man couldn’t accurately see those around him. So Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes again and his sight was restored.

Did Jesus, this divine being, really mess up? Maybe. But I personally think he did it to show that sometimes healing isn’t instantaneous, that there’s no magic pill. Healing comes in stages.

Jesus put his saliva and his hands on this man knowing what people would think if he failed. But he chose to do it anyway.

There’s something so profoundly humbling about Jesus using spit to heal someone. It’s not expensive. It’s not a fancy medicine. It’s not even pure water. Jesus used saiva, something that is literally in all of our mouth, to heal this man of his visual impairment. It’s even more humbling that Jesus allowed us to view his process, allowed us to see him try once, then try again, to get the results he wanted. Jesus healed in his own way.

But what do you do when you can’t see everything clearly? What do you do when healing doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to?

Journal/reflect: Name a time that healing didn’t look the way you thought it would. What did you do?

Day 1 of 4: SPIT

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