Day 58: What To Do When Someone Steals Your Pencil

John 9

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

 ¹ As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

   ³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

What if.

What if we could look at the events that happen in our lives - good or bad - and say, this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in me? How very much that would change our attitude and our lives. I know it would mine.

When bad things happen, it's hard to understand why a particular trial is placed in our lives. I'm sure the parents of this man wondered why they, out of all their friends, were the ones with a blind child. I'm sure they wondered why their little boy had to suffer while all the other kids ran and played.

The awesome part of the story is that God saw the bigger picture. Because of his blindness, this man met Jesus. What seemed to be a problem was actually an incredible blessing - and the works of God were displayed in him.

I heard a speaker recently talk about how she relates Jesus' teachings to 9-year-olds. She teaches them that when the Bible says that if someone takes your awesome new pencil, you give them your super cool new eraser too. Totally and completely contrary to what we do (and what we teach our kids... stand up for yourself!), but what if we taught them to think, "How can the works of God be displayed in this situation?" You walk across a fourth grade classroom and give the person who stole your pencil an eraser too, with a genuine smile and a kind word, and I guarantee the class will see the work of God in that. Multiply that a few times, and you have an adult-sized example. (E.g., You took the promotion that I deserved? Here's a file of notes that might help you.)

It's hard. Hard when we're talking about understanding why bad things happen, and hard when we're talking about displaying God in difficult situations. But what a difference we could make if we took Jesus' words here to heart: things happen. And God can be glorified in each of them.