Blinded!

"Dad, I can't see!"  Vince wailed at me.

We had just sledded down our hill together and hit a clump of fresh powder that flew up in both of our faces.  Apparently, some of the snow had gotten in my son's eyes.

"You'll be fine, Vince," I said.  "The nice thing about snow is that it melts."

"I'm blind, Dad, and you just don't care!"  He shot back at me.

Fortunately, Vince isn't blind, just a little melodramatic.  By the time we started walking up the hill, his sight had miraculously recovered, although his spirits hadn't.

Blindness is a difficult thing to deal with.  These days, most of the blindness that I see develops, not from sledding accidents, but gradually from diseases like diabetes and macular degeneration.  Whether it happens gradually or quickly, losing one's sight is not a laughing matter.

At the same time, even though there are fewer people with physical blindness, there are just as many people with spiritual blindness in this world.  And it is a lot harder thing to cure.

It is hard to deal with, because we don't really want to see ourselves as we are, to evaluate the motives that are behind our actions and understand how we come across to others.  It is easier to remain blind and pretend that we are good hearted, well intentioned people who are a joy to our friends and family, rather than sinners in need of a Savior.

John Newton wrote three hundred years ago, in the song Amazing Grace, that he had been "lost, but now was found, was blind but now I see." 

It is Jesus's redeeming work in a life that brings vision and healing.  It is His touch which drops the scales from our eyes and His power that allows us to walk in victory.