Learning to See

Some things are just hard to understand.

Whenever I asked a difficult question, I would hear that answer and it never satisfied my curiosity.  I have always wanted to solve the mysteries of life.  For a while, I even studied biology, wanting to learn how we begin as a single cell and become the complex organisms we are.

Defects bothered me, not because they happened, but because they seemed to happen infrequently compared to the number of successes.

When I encountered someone born deaf or blind, it never occurred to me that their situation had anything to do with them or what their parents did or didn't do.  It was just an inevitable consequence of the complexities of gestation, how we develop in the womb.

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. - John 9:1-3

For the disciples and all followers of the law in Jesus' time, sin manifested itself in many ways, some physical, some emotional, some psychological.

If something was wrong with me, it was my fault or the fault of my parents or grandparents.  We believed that because God was at the helm, calling all the shots, manipulating the circumstances of our existence like a puppeteer.

But that isn't how we think today.  Science has provided a path to wisdom about such things, and that makes me curious about a few things in this inquiry.

First and foremost, what did Jesus mean when he said, "he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him?"

But before we get to that, think about this.  The disciples were rough men.  These were strong brutish types who could pull their own weight, literally.  For them to question the sin of this man may have had to do more with their fears than their desire to understand how God works.

To be born without sight meant the man couldn't work, and work was livelihood.  It was survival.

So, they may have been curious.  Could this happen to me if I sin?

So, let us go back to Jesus.  I have a hard time believing all who are born with health issues or defects (pardon the use of the word) are given these issues for the purpose of glorifying God.

While there have been some amazing accomplishments by people we would think are disadvantaged from birth (Helen Keller, for example), I don't think God gives them these issues to prove a point.

So, what could Jesus mean?

I don't think it has to do with the miracle he performed, though that is the easy route to take.  I think it is much deeper, something in all of us, something we don't realize we have until we truly need it.

Once the man had faith, he was able to overcome his obstacle.  He learned to see by taking the first steps, leaving and then coming back to Jesus with sight.

Like the disciples, when we encounter someone with a condition or disability that we would never want to have, we see that person as an example of our own fears, and we avoid them.

What Jesus shows us is something else.  He makes the effort to encounter them, to come to them and heal the broken relationship between them and us.

All we encounter are they.  All are the other, the outsider, the different.  We can live in our fears and stay apart, or we can let God's works be revealed by encountering them, who ever they are.

I believe we are in this world for each other, so we need to take the first steps.

This week, as I find the time to do the things I need to do and want to do, I will seek out opportunities to be available for encounters I am not anticipating at all.  Perhaps then, I will learn to see all the ways God's works can be revealed.

More to come...