Whatchamacallits and Other Mysteries

            I’m often looking for explanations. I want to know why something happens. I want to know the why of a problem, illness, or condition.  For me, there is something helpful, perhaps comforting, about having explanations. When I spell it out, like this, it sounds funny, because often explanations change nothing.

My whatchamacallits are up already. That’s right; I don’t have any idea what these little yellow flowers are called. Someone somewhere knows, but I don’t. I dug them up from my grandmother’s yard years ago, and I ‘m glad to have them live on in my yard because it’s a bit of my grandmother in my life.  

I’d like to know why they come up so early.  Last week when temperatures warmed, I took a walk around the house, and there they were, as sunny and cheery as they are every year. It seemed a bit early—the first week in February—when they usually arrive late in the month. Could it be the sixty-degree days in mid-winter? I’d like an explanation.

            My nameless flowers that come up mysteriously in February remind me of a passage in John 9 that I read this morning. The disciples and Jesus came upon a man who was blind from birth.  They are like me. They want an explanation of why this had happened—did he or his parents sin, causing the man to be blind? I might have asked: What kind of blindness is it? What physical condition had caused the sightlessness? The disciples and I want to get down to the bottom of this.

            Or did they? Or do I?

            According to Jesus, we’re asking the wrong questions. Fixing the blame isn’t helpful. The best way to look at the situation is to look instead for what God can do (John 9, MSG). That’s more challenging than it might appear. Don’t you think it’s easier to fix blame? You can think of a thousand things the parents or the son might have done that could have been worthy of punishment. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life doing the blame game and being self-righteous about if oftentimes.  Well, there are factors, aren’t there? People actually did/said things.

            It’s a little more difficult in the midst of stuff to look for what God can do. God isn’t predictable. He doesn’t operate on anyone else’s timetable but his own. So figuring out what the Almighty might do is more than most of want to consider for any length of time. But isn’t that the most exciting way to look at things?

            The blind man ended up with a poultice of mud and spit curing his blindness. Who would have ever predicted that? Nobody!

            So what is the mystery of your whatchamacallit? What are you blaming? How important is the blame?  Isn’t the what more important than the why? I’m learning to think so. What do you think?

            Wouldn’t it be better to appreciate a whatchamacallit for how it will show you what God can do? I think so. Let me know if you do.