Blindness

It seems like yesterday that I received my very first pair of glasses. I remember it so vividly because I was in 3rd grade and everyone made fun of me. I tried my best to hide all the anger and emotion that was inside, and for those that know who I am, I can get pretty fired up very quickly. (Even as a pimply 4 eyed 3rd grader) 6th grade rolled around and my parents finally allowed me to go get contacts. We went to the eye doctor and basically he told me that I was going to have to wait because my vision was going to continue to get worse and I had a horrible stigmatism. (Once again I went home crying) Finally when I was a freshman in high school I was able to get contacts for the very first time in my life. From my freshman year till the end of my sophomore year my eyes continued to worsen, and my eyes prescription went from a -6.25 to a -7.25 (which a -8.0 is considered to be legally blind. But thankfully I didn't have to wear those coke bottled eye glasses anymore and could still wear contacts!

This morning I was reading out of Mark chapter 8:22-26, and there is a story of Jesus healing the blind man at Bethsaida. We find in this story an interesting twist, when Jesus spits in the mans eyes and touches him, he asks, "what do you see?" the man replies, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus puts His hands on him and the mans eyes are open. I have always wondered why Jesus didn't just heal him right away, but when we look back in the beginning of the chapter Jesus feeds the 4,000 with just a few loaves and a few fish. After he does this miracle they immediately get into a boat and crossed over to the other side. As they were in the boat the disciples had forgotten to bring the bread except for one loaf. Jesus was aware of their discussions and said, "do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears to hear but fail to hear?"

This absolutely blows me away that the disciples are freaking out right after they have seen Jesus perform this amazing miracle of feeding the 4,000 and yet they are worried that they will not have food. I go back to the healing of the blind man, and realize that this takes place right after the disciples lack of faith. I believe Jesus performed 2 miracles that day as he spit into his face and he saw people that look like trees. I believe the first miracle was Jesus healing the mans spiritual eyes, and they he healed the mans physical eyes. I was able to finally see without glasses when I was entering into my junior year of high school. That same summer, I had an encounter with God that changed my life still to this day. I can see in the physical realm now, but that summer God healed my spiritual eyes, and has allowed me to have compassion for people that are lost.