Journeys of a Former Firebrand

Once upon a time, there lived a physician in a far away land who could perform incredible acts of healing. While many others suffered at the hands of other healers, this man cured many of those who came to him.

One day he found a raggedly-clad beggar, seated on the main avenue in town. The man had with him nothing more than a small, tin cup that cheerfully chimed each time someone placed coins in it.

As the physician drew nearer, he noticed the man was blind. Not nearsighted. Completely blind. The physician felt pity for him.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“Why, isn’t it plain, sir?” the man replied without so much as a move of his head. “I’m begging bread for my wife, children and myself.”

“You’re a nobel man to think of your family before yourself. It mustn’t be easy to sit in the hot sun of this avenue and beg the pity of strangers.”

“It’s my responsibility alone, sir. I must take care of the family God has entrusted me with. I can do no less.”

The physician examined the man with crescent movements back and forth so as to see every angle of his face. If anything could be done for this man, the physician wanted to attempt it.

At last he stood still, straightened up and spoke. “How long have you been this way?”

“My whole life, sir.”

The physician paused for a moment, then spoke again. “That’s a long time to live without sight.”

“It tis, sir.”

“What if I told you I could heal you?”

“That would be a miracle too marvelous to take in, sir.”

“I can heal you,” the physician said. “We can start tomorrow if you like.”

The beggar didn’t respond. His blank face convinced the physician the blind man didn’t hear.

“I can heal you,” he repeated.

“Eye, I heard you the first time.”

“Do you want to be healed?”

“Yes” was all the man said.

“Will you submit to the procedure under my care?”

“No,” he said, flatly.

The physician was bewildered that this blind man would turn him down so squarely. The man wanted healing. Yet he refused.

“Why will you not submit to the procedure?”

Again, the man did not respond, and the physician again wondered if he hadn’t heard him.

“I’m afraid,” the man said at last.

“Of what?” the physician asked.

This time the blind man turned to him, missing a direct gaze by several inches. “My family and friends have described what the world is like. Of course, I can only imagine since I have never seen it. It’s a world of terror and ugliness. Wars, famine, hatred, greed. All these are frightening to me and have convinced me that it would be better if I remained blind.”

“The world isn’t such a bad place. Sight would demonstrate that to you,” the physician replied.

“Surely, but why would I take that chance when I have such a safe situation here.”

The physician marveled at the blind man’s stubborn determination. He returned home, disturbed but determined himself.

Day after day, the physician would travel out of his way simply to find the blind man along the main thoroughfare. Day after day, the blind man sat and listened as the physician tried in vain to persuade him. Nothing changed.

One day, the physician had a marvelous idea. He hurried to the main street in town and found the blind man exactly where he had left him.

“I have a proposal,” the physician began.

“Ah, I’ve heard it all before,” said the blind man.

“This you will want to hear.”

The blind nodded his consent.

“I still want to heal you,” the physician said. “But I have developed a poultice that can also make you blind again. I will heal you for one day so that you can see and experience the world for yourself. At the end of the day, I will return you to the exact state of blindness you are in now. Nothing will have changed.”

The physician could see the machanations of the blind man’s mind mulling over the idea. “I don’t know,” the man said at last. “I’m still not keen to the idea. But if I can have my old life back, what’s the harm?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the physician slipped a jar from his pocket and pressed an aromatic poultice into the eyes of the blind beggar.

The man recoiled in surprise. “What have you done?”

“Exactly what I said I would do,” the physician replied. “Leave the poultice there until tomorrow. Your sight will be restored by then. I will be back around sunset tomorrow to apply the second poultice to take your sight away if you so wish.”

The physician slipped into the crowd and returned home.

As sunset on the next day streaked the sky with orange and red, the physician returned to speak to the man who was once blind. He could not find him there. After many attempts, the physician finally spoke with a man who pointed him toward the center of town where the once-blind man lived.

Night had fallen hard on that place, but the darkness was broken by a brilliantly lit house at the end of the street, the very house where the man lived. Cheerful voices filled with song floated through the dense air.

The physician knocked at the door. A small child opened up to him, flooding the avenue with blinding light.

“Yes, sir?” she said.

“I’m here to see the man who was once blind. Is this his house?”

“Yes, sir,” she responded with an even more respectful tone. “He’s my father.”

“I am his friend.”

She led the physician to a spartan room, decorated with only three chairs, a table and a small rug. For the first time, he saw why the street was so dark. The whole neigborhood had come to celebrate the blind man’s newfound sight.

“There he is!” the man shouted. “There is the skilled physician who granted me sight.”

He hugged the physician as tears of joy streamed from both men’s eyes.

“I have the other poultice here, if you would like it.”

The once-blind man laughed through his tears. “Not one bit, sir. Not one bit!”

“Then the world isn’t such a bad place?”

“Not at all when you see it as I have,” the man said. “When I saw the faces of my wife and children. When I saw the house for the first time. When I saw the trees in the avenue, the blue sky with clouds, I knew this is who I should be.”

“Who you should be?” the physician asked.

“Well, the way I understand it, only a fool would give back the gift I’ve received. Because, you see, sir, once I was blind, but now I see.”

So What?

There’s a story in the Bible in John 9 where Jesus heals a man’s physical blindness. What was his response to Jesus’ act of power and kindness?

“Once I was blind but now I see.”

What’s most extraordinary about the story in the Bible is that the man seemed to see more than his new sight allowed him. Not only were his physical eyes opened, but also his spiritual eyes. He wasn’t just changed on the inside. The Son of God changed him from the inside out.

Much like our story today, when we were born, we resembled the man, blind, listless, lost. We not only had no hope but had no desire to pursue the things of God. We were spiritually blind and liked it.

However, God changes all that when He saves a soul. It’s like a blind person receiving his sight when all he wanted to do was hide from life. All doubts, hesitations and arguements melt away when the soothing grace of God gets a grip on a human heart.

How can we help but love Him when we see life as it should be viewed? Once we were blind. Now we see because Jesus Christ died on a cruel cross so that we could have sight restored and life returned.

If you haven’t already, put your trust in Jesus Christ, believing in faith that He can and will save you. If you have, thank God that He gave you a gift so wonderful, you can’t help yourself when you show Him your appreciation for the incredible things he has done.

Because, really, living life blind and oblivious isn’t really living. Let Jesus give you sight and live to His glory alone.