Deep healing...from the inside

"Then he laid hands on the man's eyes a second time and he saw clearly; his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly."
Mark 8:25

There are so many wonderful nuggets to pull from this reading. I love that Jesus takes the blind man away from the crowd--even his own people who brought him to Jesus. Jesus wants to be alone with the man and wants to reach out and touch him. Jesus could have waved his hand to heal the guy, from a distance, but chose to take him away from the crowd, touch him and heal him in stages.  Our healing God is not remote or "out there" somewhere. Our God wants to take us away from our crowded lives to be alone with us. Our God desires an intimacy with us to physically comfort and heal us, not just to wave a healing hand. Because our God knows the healing goes much deeper than the surface need we may bring to God; God knows that healing may take time. We may think we want the instant fix, but, ultimately, a deeper healing may take more than one attempt.  Jesus wants to heal us, completely, into the whole and holy people God knows we are already.  To do that, God draws us to silence and solitude, away from our crowded lives. Jesus gently leads us into rich relationship, so that we may be healed from the inside. Love, heidi