A Mule Load of Earth

… please let me, your servant, have two mule-loads of earth…” 2 kings 5:17
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This one line from a bible story I’d heard dozens of times never even registered with me…it was almost as if I’d never even heard this part of the story until one Sunday Fr. Mike Schmitz unpacked this one little piece in such a powerful way it changed the way I look at everything.  The story of course is the one where Naaman, a commander in the Syrian army visited the Prophet Elisha to be cured of leprosy.  He was so grateful to Elisha for the healing he tried to give him all kinds of fancy gifts.  Elisha of course wouldn’t accept them because he knew the healing hadn’t come from him but rather the power of the Almighty God.  Once Naaman wrapped is mind around this, he made an odd request…two mule loads of dirt to take with him.  The reason he wanted the earth is a lesson for every heart that is trying to grow in holiness.

Naaman wanted the dirt so he could take it back to his homeland and put an altar of worship on it so he could praise and thank the God who granted his healing.  The Almighty God we worship was foreign to him and he didn’t ever want to forget, and he knew the earth would forever connect him to the place he met God and experienced his power.  He not only wanted to remember the goodness of God he wanted to share it with everyone who didn’t know.  Naaman, the man who didn’t know God, loved, appreciated, shared and worshiped him in a way that grabs our attention. 

The whole story made me think about all the times God has done magnificent things in my life and I just seem to “move on”.  Oh, I’m really grateful for a while but I need to channel my inner Naaman and stand on the blessing with gratitude and share the story so I won’t forget and others can experience his powerful love.  I think I need some mule loads of earth to stand on because the minute something tough, rotten or scary bumps into my days his past works and mighty love seem to fade from my memory leaving me tangled in the mess.  As we head into Thanksgiving, Advent and the busy month of December, it’s easy to get distracted from the good he’s done and focus on the busyness and stress, so we need to create our own mule load of earth to stand on so we don’t loose sight of what God’s done in our life. I decided to make a highlight reel of amazing things he’s done for me this fall that can serve as my mule loads of earth.

*A precious new grandson who only had to spend a few days in the NICU instead of a few weeks.
*Watching my 87-yr old dad who experienced another fall, break, double surgery and dependence on a walker, find mobility and work his way to walking with just a cane.
*Experiencing the joy of two young couples who battled infertility welcome babies into their homes.
*Eighteen hours of road time with my Missouri grandkids and their mama.
*Many hours of “cousin fun” with the grandkids.
*An amazing surprise, last minute trip to work with a parish in Alaska.  The trip included a house, car two days of play time along with the speaking and retreat work PLUS, just because He is so fancy…the cheapest tickets to Anchorage you could imagine which meant Dave and I got to take a bucket list trip! AND the people of St. Andrew Parish in Eagle River Alaska were an incredible joy to be with!  I saw God so clearly in the beauty of Alaska and in his children who lived there.  I was so honored to see what he’s doing in this small place, and I was drawn to tears at Mass when the 23 people planning to join the church at Easter were introduced.  I wish I had brought home some dirt from that beautiful place!

I’m going to hold on to these things along with the hundreds of other things he’s done to make me grateful and not just ponder them but share them as a sign of his love and care!

A Seed To Plant:  Make your list of places you’ve seen God working in your life and fix them in your mind as Naaman’s mule loads of earth to worship on…and make sure you share at least one of them with someone!
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Blessings on your day!