He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.”
John 9:11
When faced with difficult decisions, the direction we should take is often blurry like the images through a window on a rainy day. We often wish that we could see a clear image of the blue and orange object in the picture. Is it a flower? We often feel that we can’t move forward because we don’t have all of the information to make a decision. What is behind the flower that may make the image even more beautiful if only it was in focus?
The passage from John describes a blind man who through faith in Jesus regains his sight. It could also describe anyone of us wanting to know more clearly a direction we need to take. Jesus helps the man regain his sight by covering his eyes with mud and then having the man wash his own eyes. This gives the man time to refocus. Lent is a time to refocus and wash our eyes to see the direction we should take our lives.
Take another look at the picture. Instead of focusing on the blurry background look at the clarity of the raindrops in the foreground. The different shapes of the raindrops have their own unique beauty. Perhaps during Lent we need to refocus our thoughts and see the obvious actions that we should take; the ones that Jesus can help us see more clearly.
Mark Devlin