When I was in the second grade, I went to the eye doctor. I remember him telling me I needed glasses. By my best guess I was around 7 or 8 years old. When my glasses arrived, I remember walking outside and looking down... Do you know the kind of sidewalk that’s really just made of like..brown pea-gravel stuck into concrete? Well. That’s what I saw. And it wasn’t just a brown blob. I could see the individual gravels and I just couldn’t believe it. Then I looked up. And I said, “Look mom! Look at the leaves!”. I guess I had never realized you could see individual leaves on a tree from afar. For me, they’d always been big green blobs. The funny part about all of this is that I really had no idea I was so blind!

I’ll have to get a confirmation on this but I’m pretty sure my mom teared up because she didn’t know my vision was so bad, either. I’m sure I never complained and, up to that point, I had nothing to complain about. After all, it was all I knew!

And that’s the thing about it isn’t it?... We only know what we know! Our only frame of reference for ANYTHING (especially in childhood) is experience. We can only understand the life we have known. It is only as we get older and begin growing that we learn to work from a place of empathy or understanding outside of ourselves.

I’m certain I could dig really deep and find a Biblical reference to parallel this story but to be honest with you there’s an obvious one that comes to mind... The story of Jesus healing the blind man.

Its such a brief moment in the life of Jesus but we see so much in it..no pun intended! What’s interesting is the word used for eyes here is not the common word for it..instead, the greek word ‘omma’ can refer to both physical and spiritual sight. That’s what Jesus does for us. He covers us so that we may see...both physically AND spiritually. But we must allow Him to. The man in this story (with the help of friends to guide him) sought out Jesus. He asked for His touch. And he asked for healing. He had faith for it.

Friends, this is a lesson to us all. God wants to be sought after. God wants to touch us and heal us. But we must come to Him. We must ask. And...we MUST allow his Healing hand over our lives. Both physically and spiritually.

Sometimes God does His work little by little. Sometimes, His healing takes more than one pass through. What if that blind man had said, well... I can KIND of see a little now, and that is better than total blindness... He would have missed out on SO much more! Jesus came that we may have life and have it to the FULL! (John 10:10). Not so that we may live partially healed!

So here is my reminder today, sweet friends: seek Him. Ask. Allow His touch. And know that, like this blind man.. it may take more than one pass. Know that God works on His own timeline.

As we go into this season of thanksgiving I pray we all have this perspective. Clarity doesn’t always come at once. Answers don’t always come immediately. Healing can come little by little. Jesus can open your eyes how He wants to, in His time, and for His reasons. He knows what we couldn’t possibly know. He knows the exact healing process to take us through, painful as it may be. He knows the perspective shift we have to experience. And ultimately, He knows the restoration God has for us. Jesus touched that blind man’s eyes. And Jesus can touch your life, too, to bring healing... After all..that’s why He came.

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