Power in the Mud

John 9:5-7 As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s Light. When He had said this, He spat on the ground and made clay (mud) with His saliva, and He spread it as ointment on the man’s eyes. And He said to him, Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam—which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

It’s in the mud.

You see it don’t you.

In a moment you are awake.

You find yourself, you find yourself, you find yourself in the mud.

Up close and personal.

So close you can barely see it.

Yet it is in the sediment in the sentiment.

The water separating itself from the mud.

The mud drying, the mud setting, the flood waters subsiding.

For first comes the downpour, the deluge, the flood, then the subsidence, the subsidy.

Then the mud drys and becomes solid.

You can see your footsteps in it. For you shall see from whence you have come.

And yet what is my purpose?

To make this ground fertile.

An abundance of produce, an uprising. Like a root out of dry ground, and yet now like a shoot out of fertile ground.

For my power is in the setting, in the settling.

For the root rises in the soft ground, the huge tree falls when planted in the mud.

You look for the crane to pull it up, to establish it, to make it upright.

Yet this not my way.

In a moment, in an instant, the very ground grabs hold of the root, grasps the roots and it is elevated.

For I have hold of this ground. This is my place of establishment.

This is my restoring ground, for that which was uprooted shall now be established.

For it shall spring up.

Isaiah 32:20 Happy and fortunate are you who cast your seed upon all waters when the river overflows its banks; for the seed will sink into the mud and when the waters subside, the plant will spring up; you will find it after many days and reap an abundant harvest, you who safely send forth the ox and the donkey to range freely. Judges 18:9-10 They said, Arise, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very fertile. And will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go and enter in and possess the land. When you go, you will come to people [feeling] safe and secure. The land is broad [widely extended on all sides]; and God has given it into your hands—a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.