The blind shall see . . .

Even though my eye doctor says my eyes are healthy and I don’t need new glasses, my vision is sometimes fuzzy. Floaters, fatigue and blurry eyes frighten me because I use them so much. However, even if I could not see at all, I know that spiritual blindness is worse than physical blindness. People without eyes at least know that they cannot see.

From age thirteen to twenty-nine, I read the Bible daily without understanding one word. Oh, I knew what the words themselves meant, like ‘kingdom’ and ‘faith’ but had no idea what God was saying in this book that my mother also read every day. Scripture didn’t make sense and had no impact on my life. I did whatever I thought I should, with no understanding of the ways of God or any inclination to obey Him. How can anyone obey gibberish?

Now I know that I was blind as the proverbial bat, without even a bat’s radar that keeps it from running into things. Not only that, I had no clue about the problem of spiritual blindness or that it was my problem.

I will never forget the day that the lights came on. I was sitting in my living room reading a book about reincarnation. I’d been looking for the answer to a question: What happens to the energy of my life when I die? My father told me energy is not created or destroyed, just changed to a different form. Was this true? If it was, was reincarnation the answer?

That day, in that book, I found a verse from the Bible. I can’t remember which verse it was, perhaps a verse I’d read before, but it was God’s light switch. It seemed the room was suddenly flooded with light. In one glorious moment, I understood that Jesus was God in the flesh and that He came to die for my sin and to forgive me. God “commanded light to shine out of darkness” and shone that light in my heart “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Walking in the light is vastly different from going through life with my eyes shut. From that day, I began to see new paths and realized that my old ways were bent and twisted. God showed me how to get through the maze and walk with awareness. He did exactly what He promised in Isaiah 42:16:

I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.

When I read this verse today, I rejoice in the past power and faithfulness of God. He saw my blindness and how unaware I was of the spiritual world around me. He opened my eyes and let me see, then took my hand to help me walk a new way. I still make mistakes because I let go of His hand, but these are never His fault. He is true to His Word.

I also rejoice in the promise in this verse for the future. As I get older, more forgetful, less steady on my feet and less sure of my ability to make my way, He says that He will guide me just as He has already done, and that He will never forsake me. Psalm 73:26 says, “My heart and my flesh (and even my eyes) may fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

This is a good way to start the day—remembering the great goodness of God in my past experience and knowing that He will keep on caring for me in my future.