Lessons from Naaman - Part 2

Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. (2 Kings 5:2-5 ESV). God had a plan. Doesn’t He always? Naaman had been a successful military leader, under the power of God. We saw that yesterday. Naaman had a flaw in his life called leprosy. I have no doubt God used this difficulty to reveal a greater truth. Here in today’s verses, we also see the hand of God. A simple Israelite girl, taken from her homeland against her will, provides the answer for Naaman’s leprosy. This ordinary girl simply tells Naaman that there is a prophet in Samaria who can heal him! It is wonderful to watch God work a plan! Out of the unsuspected, God does the unexpected! God produces miracles through ordinary people and ordinary circumstances. I guess that’s why it still amazes me whenever He uses people like me. We may lead a pretty ordinary life, but with God’s direction it can be extraordinary. In Elmer Bendiner’s book, The Fall of the Fortresses, he describes one bombing run over the German city of Kassel: Our B-17 (The Tondelayo) was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a twenty-millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple. On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks—eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. Even after thirty-five years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn. He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them. One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually, they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.” God uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary. What in your life is mundane, routine, and not abnormal? What in your life is just not that exciting? Could God have a purpose in mind for your ordinary life? Could God use you in a miraculous way, just because you are obedient to Him? Of course He can! Why don’t you let Him today?