Mud in my face... and a bee in my pocket

My devotional today was on John 9:15. "He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and now I see." It was all about how the mud wasn't what was so special... it was the finger in the mud. It was the ONE who put the mud on there....

Imagine sitting there, praying to God that the man before you, this man of miracles, would save you from the curse you've carried your whole life. As you sit there, blind and hoping, some guy begins rubbing a handful of squishy, grainy dirt on your eyes: the man who was supposed to be your hope, your help... quite literally rubbing mud in your face.

How many times have I looked at my life wondering why, when I was reaching out for help, i felt betrayed, sad, hurt even more, and wondering why life was so unfair. Here I sit, hoping, waiting, expecting a miracle, and instead, another facet of life falls apart right in my lap: my proverbial mud in the face, while I was waiting for healing and help.

Looking back over life, I can see that some of those "faces full of mud" were really Gods way of helping me heal a bigger, underlying problem, even though at the time, I was sitting there feeling the weight of that "last straw" as the "mud" was rubbed on and ground in.

Another book i'm reading through right now, called "The Buzz" (a really cute bee themed book of encoruagement by Thelma Wells), focuses on 7 verses to carry with you throughout life as lifelines. The first of them really touched my heart, and spoke to me (they all did, but this one just stuck out so much). It reads, "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy" ~Job 8:21.

One of the things that totally amazed me... was the book it came from: Job. JOB! Of all people in the Bible, Job faced such adversity, such pain, such suffering (his children suffered health problems, and died, his wife betrayed him and left him alone, he lost his own health, his finances suffered amazing losses, and so on and on and on)... that he had a right more than anyone to sulk, to feel badly about his life, to question God's reasoning. But (before he turned on him) Job's friend, Bildad the Shuhite, gave Job these words of encoruagement, and Job carried them with him throughout these trials as a source of hope. What power they hold. What promise!!

God will yet fill my life with laughter... and my lips with shouts of joy. I will once again look at life with gratification and true happiness, knowing that the purpose for things in my life have been completed.

SO, with mud in my face, and a bee in my pocket, I am just keeping on trudging along, keeping my head high, trusting, hoping, and looking for the day when I will be able to see through the mud, and laugh with joy.