So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Naaman is a powerful, successful commander with a humiliating disease and a foreign servant girl's suggestion he'd rather ignore. Told to dip seven times in a muddy river, he almost walks away offended — he wanted something impressive, not something simple. He does it anyway. His skin becomes like a child's.
There's something almost annoying about how unglamorous the instructions are. No grand ceremony, no impressive ritual — just an ordinary river and a number that requires patience past the point where it feels pointless.
If you've ever wanted your questions about faith answered with something intellectually dazzling, and instead kept running into things that feel almost too plain — an old book, an ordinary conversation, a small act of trust — this story doesn't apologize for that. It suggests the plainness isn't the obstacle. Naaman's pride was.
What's the "muddy river" you've been too proud to try because it seemed beneath the answer you wanted?
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.