Need a Spit Shine?

Mark 8:22-26

His sight was restored

And he could see everything distinctly

When I was young

My Dad had a careful routine surrounding

Polishing his shoes

There was the old shoebox

The cloth

The tins of polish in brown and black

And all shades in between

Finally, was the brush

He would wrap the cloth around a fingertip

Dab it in the polish

Put his left hand in the shoe to mold it firm

And buff with intense pressure

In circles

Dab again

Rub again

Dab again

Rub again

And then he would hold the shoe

at arms length

and observe his work

Tilting it from side to side

A few more dabs and rubs

Another observation

Then my favorite part

The buffing

He would take the brush

And as if the brush were a fighter jet

He rhythmically swooped that brush down and across the shoe

Swooping up and down

With swiftness

And at differing angles

…as his left hand

moved the target strategically

Oh yeah…and he periodically spit on the shoe as he did so

Jesus heals the blind man in today’s gospel with spittle.  And the healing happens in stages (the scholars make much of that)

As I read the text

I thought of my Dad’s shoe shining ritual

In the Gospels, healings happen

And they are once and done

That is what narratives capture

But as for me

The ritual needs repeating

Like shoe-shining

Dulling happens

I don’t usually notice

The gradual blurry-ing

But when thanksgiving wells up inside

I know that I have been healed once again

The sacramental life

With its rhythm

And predictability

Works on me like the

contents of that shoe box

in my Dad’s careful hands