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troubled water

John 5:4
"For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."

How do you explain one person getting healed and another one not? One is blessed and the other not? One is lucky and the other not? Or, perhaps there is an angel that "troubled the water."

We could entertain the idea that there are angels "troubling" other things in our world. They would help explain the unexplainable. Situations we don't feel comfortable in. Like the Bethesda Pool. With its five porticoes, located next door to the Temple. Where ceremonies of purification were performed. So many people here desperately hoping to win the lottery of bubbling water. With many people here waiting and not "winning", they turned to begging. Making this place known for both suffering and hope.

Yesterday's verse describes it this way, "In these lay a great multitude of IMPOTENT FOLK..." We should not see this throng of sick and suffering as "others." We should see them as ourselves. We are all IMPOTENT FOLK at one time or another. We all need some degree of healing. If we are blessed to not need physical healing, we might need mental, emotional or spiritual help. We might find ourselves seeking out our own Bethesda pools. Hoping to get to the bubbling water before anyone else. Into this situation the Son of God stepped to save a blessed person!

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