Summary of John 9 Being able to see is without question one of the greatest gifts from God—which we tend to take for granted—until we lose our eyesight. Without question, one of God’s most incredible gifts to me is allowing me to wake up in the morning and see my loved one’s face. Looking at her face fills me each day with joy. The man in today’s reading is one who was born blind. I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like to have a child come into the world with such a condition. To add to the agonizing reality of this story, the popular theology of Jesus’ day was that every illness was as the result of a specific sin of the person suffering such a thing—or in this case the parents, since he was born blind. The amazing certainty is that when Jesus comes in contact with a human being the blessings are almost never singular. The healing experienced in this narrative, like so many others, is that the impact is both physical and also spiritual. Ellen White speaks to this notion by saying: “Not only had his natural sight been restored, but the eyes of his understanding had been opened. Christ had been revealed to his soul, and he received Him as the Sent of God” (The Desire of Ages, p. 475). As we accept God’s gifts today, let us not fail to recognize the temporal and eternal dimensions of what He gives us. And may we also follow Jesus’ model as we come in contact with the needs of others. Willie Oliver Director Department of Family Ministries General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 05:19:27 +0000