Random Thoughts about Seeing

“My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10. 46-52

What is life like in the world of being blind?

We have to feel our way around, which is difficult and confusing.

We stumble and fall, which hurts.

We need a guide, which takes trust.

We have trouble going in the right direction, which wastes a great deal of time.

What blinds us and how can we prevent it?

During the Second World War, a blind teenager named Jacques Lusseyran was appointed head of the French teenage resistance movement because in his blindness, he had developed an innate sense of inner vision. Though he was blind, he could intuit and expose people who were disguised as part of the movement, thus turning them in and helping the effort. His book And There was Light tells this story and that he was ultimately imprisoned with Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Buchenwald, but unlike Bonhoeffer, was freed at the end of the war.

Even though my eyes are very good, I am often blind to the world. Blind to my mistakes, my prejudices, my inadequacies. Only after time spent intentionally turning inward, claiming that innate sense of God in the midst of us, do I "regain my sight." The same thing is true in my blindness to other people. I see what I want to see rather than what is their truth.

This morning I pray that "my faith will make me well" and that I will regain my sight, seeing the image of God in myself and in those I love and cherish, knowing that God is in the midst of us and all will be well.