How Clearly Do You See the World and God?

March 17, 2025

There was a blind girl who hated herself purely for the fact she was blind. The only person she didn’t hate was her loving boyfriend, as he was always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry him. One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and now she could see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, “now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”

The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too and refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears and later wrote her a simple note, “Just take care of my eyes dear.” Blindness clearly can affect people with working eyes as well as those who cannot see.

In John 9:1-7 we have the healing miracle of the man who was born blind. Jesus makes a mud pie and smudges it on his eyes. Then tells him to wash it off. You need to wash mud off, right? This is the only time Jesus used a prop to heal. So, the blind man washes the mud off, and he sees. What does he see first? HIMSELF! Jesus is never doing just one thing. Why did Jesus want the man to see himself first when he received sight? No explanation is given, but my guess is that is what he needed to see first. Therefore, he would see that he was special in Jesus’ eyes and special in his own eyes, literally, and figuratively. Too often the hardest part of the second greatest commandment is not to love your neighbor, but to love YOURSELF!

What can we learn from this unique insight into this amazing miracle? It is, if you look deeper into most miracles and you will see a deeper meaning. Healing is for a short time. Our bodies will fail, and we will die. That man will never forget the first thing he ever saw. Jesus planned it that way, that God may be glorified all the more.

In Mark 8:22-25, Jesus heals a blind man at Bethsaida. He touched his eyes once and he saw shadows, a second time and he saw Jesus. Have you ever needed some time to see things clearly? As you struggle to see, and clarity comes into focus, don’t you value what you have gained even more because of the struggle? There are many times that the miracles of faith come after disappointments and struggle. It drives us deeper into seeking and trusting the Lord.

In Mark 10:46-52, Jesus meets blind Bartimaeus on the road to Jericho. It is obvious what Bartimaeus’ problem is, but the first thing Jesus does is ask an odd question, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus’ answer seems just as obvious, “I want to see!!!” I have also learned through the years that some people really don’t want to be healed. They enjoy the attention they get while being sick. It is a good question to always ask people seeking something what they are seeking. If you are currently seeking something I highly recommend that you are sure of what you are seeking. It will help you get what you are looking for and to see how to get it more clearly.

The most famous deaf and blind person, Helen Keller, once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” She can bring more clarity to our ability to see the world, and God, more clearly with these words, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and everyone, and make that best a part of my life.”

Seeing clearly is not an easy thing. Our eyes can be tricked into seeing things that are not there, missing things that are there and completely misunderstanding what we are seeing. We should be careful not to always put our trust in our eyes. We will see our lives with much greater clarity if we put our trust in God. He will make sure we see what He needs us to see.

Have you ever seen something, but then found out your eyes have tricked you? Can we always trust what we see? How do we learn to trust God more, so we can depend on God to help us see more clearly?

(To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).