In exactly six days, spring arrives. Currently the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there is a drip drip dripping of the snow that fell yesterday. The days are getting lighter. So spring- it’s calling. That means robins, warm weather, tulips, crocuses, and of course – MUD!
Mud. It’s brown. It’s wet and it’s glorious! Youth make mud cakes and mud pies. It’s squishy and dirty. Yes, at times, it can look a little like animal doo doo. But it can also look a little like chocolate cake batter.
Mud. It’s glorious! It’s what involved in what happened next in the story of the blind man. Jesus played with mud!
Once upon a time, when we was walking along the road with his friends, He saw a blind man. He told his friends that this man was blind so that he could show God’s glory. He said he was here as the world’s light and that while it is day – he needed to do good work! Then, he made mud.
He spat into the dust and made mud. Then, he put it on the blind man’s eyes. ( more like smeared it ) and then he said: “Go wash”.
The blind mind didn’t say anything. He couldn’t see Jesus But surely he could hear him. It is my opinion that when one or more of our senses is taken away, the others become stronger. So, I think that even if Jesus stood a few feet away, that blind man could hear him loud and clear. He heard him say “I am the light of the world. He heard him say “This man was born blind so that he could show the glory of God. I have work to do while it is still day.”
There he stands with mud on his eyes. He probably saw more darkness than before. God says to him, “Now, go and wash.”
The blind man was told to go to the Pool of Siloam. It had some clean “purifying” water in it. It was the center of Jerusalem. After playing with mud, I washed too. In the bathtub with soap! The water turned brown after washing off the mud. My skin was all clean and smooth and I could touch things again because I was clean.
I am not sure the Pool of Siloam was a bathtub. More like a pool of water in a rock. I don’t know why the water was purified. But like your mother tells you to wash up before dinner, Jesus told this blind man to go wash!
And he did. Then, e came right back. He came back to the place where he stood blind. When he was blind, he was probably begging because he had been reduced to nothing but a beggar. But this time, he could see!
I wonder what he was thinking when he first could see. The light must have been overpowering after having seen darkness for so long. The colors, the people, the whole wide world was really there before his eyes. He now had all five senses!
Wait a minute! Wait a minute? Wasn’t this the guy that was sitting and begging? ” asked one.
“Nah! he looks like him. But no.” said another.
“No, it IS him.”
“Hey! Aren’t you that blind man? You used to beg? ” Someone asks him.
“Yes, I am that man.” the ONCE blind man said.
“What’s happened to you? How come your eyes are open? How come you see? ” another asks. His mouth is probably hanging open.
“Well, the man named Jesus made mud and anointed may eyes with mud. “
Then they all stand and wonder- Annointed? That’s for really holy people like the priests. That’s for people that belong to God. And certainly that wouldn’t do for something like Mud?
But that is the word the blind man uses. He doesn’t just say Jesus rubbed mud on his eyes. He says anointed. It’s like he doesn’t see mud on his eyes as being a ridiculous thing. He sees the mud that Jesus put on his eyes as something glorious. Like he was touching him with mud and it was glorious because Jesus was getting him ready for something glorious!
“He told me to go and wash. I went and washed. Now, I can see!” He shouts. He jumps three feet in the air and kicks his feet together. He takes someone near by the hand and does a little dance.
And this all came from mud. Glorious mud. Because Jesus was playing with it. And something glorious came from it. Oh glorious mud!