Have you ever got mud in your eyes?  Dirt?  An eyelash for that matter?  I remember about 15 years ago when I was on a ladder replacing letters for the latest announcement to be displayed ON our church marquee.  All of a sudden, what the eye doctor would later identify as a piece of spider web somehow got in my eye with the most allergic reactions I have ever had.   To say that it was an irritant is an understated fact.  It felt like the plague had attached itself to my eyeball for about an hour.  You see, the eye is a valuable thing which most of us take for granted until it’s unavailable for use.  Put a “be back later” sign on it and cover it up.  This past Sunday at Highway, we opened up the gospel of John in the ninth chapter to read a story of a blind man’s encounter with Jesus and His disciples.  Now this guy was probably your average Joe beggar sitting beside the road in Jerusalem.  He was quite accustomed to the business and bustle of big city life, but his blindness was also something quite familiar. You see, he was born without sight.  Man, that must have been so tough not having any visible concept of the reality around him.  No idea what color is…depth…light…only a reality of darkness.

Then all of a sudden he heard somewhat of an argument near him…at least a disagreement between friends.  Then the sound of spitting was detected.  Strange for that to be such a significant fact included in this story for I have often wondered if there wasn’t simply a canteen of water handy nearby.  Whether there was or not, this man, Jesus, chose to combine his spit with the dirt next to the blind man’s shoes to form…MUD.  Now I do not know the consistency of spit-to-mud ratio involved in this moment, but it was significant enough to warrant cleansing.  For at that moment, this blind-since-birth-beggar has this very same mud put in his eyes! Yeah, can you believe that?  Jesus shoves His spit and dirt in the dude’s eyes and then tells the now…blind-since-birth-begger-with mud in his eyes to GO to a pool and wash it out!   The pool had a specific name, and I would guess it was not right next to the man because Jesus sent him to it.  Siloam.  The name Siloam means “sent”.  He was sent to find clarity…perspective…sight!  So now blind-since-birth-begger-with mud in his eyes now sees the world around him for the first time.  It’s an incredible encounter that Jesus had with this man leaving him forever changed. Seriously, if you haven’t read it, you need to right now!  Here’s the link:   JOHN 9 NKJV

But that whole mud thing in the eye…yeah, I’m sure that it was a creative miracle demonstrating that Jesus, who was the Word of God made flesh Messiah, could take the very dirt He created us out of and form new eyes for the man.  That’s probably the case but let’s bring this full circle.  Mud is a foreign substance in the eye.  Dirt is an irritant.  It’s uncomfortable.  When I use to hold annual Mud Bowl’s as a youth pastor in Arkansas, I always hated to get mud in my eyes…not because I couldn’t see but because it was UNCOMFORTABLE!   This story hits me in a way that I think we could easily miss, and here it is:   God doesn’t avoid what’s uncomfortable to us if the process gets us where we need to be!   God sees us and our life with complete omniscient clarity…knowing that there are life moments ahead full of vivid color and only when we are ready can we see them. Yes, the process can be uncomfortable, but clarity awaits your obedience to the master’s words.  So, here’s mud in your eye!