Blindness

For the last few days I haven’t been able to stop thinking about blindness in Jesus’ day. What must it have been like to have been blind and suddenly healed by Christ Jesus? When I think about the magnitude of that miracle, it’s just stunning.

Matthew 10 recalls one such story of this miraculous healing. Take a gander -Matthew 10:27-31, “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes , Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.”

I think I would have done the same thing if I had just been healed of my blindness. How could you keep such a miracle a secret considering one moment you were blind and the next you could see? I often wonder how they responded to their friends when they were approached by them. Suddenly they could put a face with the voice they had heard all those years. Suddenly they could rejoice with them, play, walk, fish or work the fields. Life as they knew it changed forever. They would have to learn colors and what things were. It’s so exciting to think about.

The older I get the more I have come to really appreciate my eyesight. I no longer take it for granted like I had all those years. I would often look at people with glasses and wonder why they struggled to see. Why was it so difficult for some people to function?

Now that I must have reading glasses to see the writing on everything, I get it!

Father forgive me for my lack of compassion towards my brothers and sisters. Shame on me for assuming theirs was a struggle of their own making. Shame on me for assuming they were too slow or lazy to do anything about it. I now get the struggle to see distance near and far at the same time. I now understand the frustrations of leaving glasses around the house. O Lord, forgive me for my blindness, my spiritual blindness to my brothers and sisters. Theirs was not something I felt compassion for until I suffered from it myself. It wasn’t until I walked in their shoes that I could understand. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

In His Service
Jeanette