There are many times I am blind and fail to see.
I often get so accustomed to things I fail to see all the beauty around me.
I get so busy with life I fail to stop and smell the wonderful scents in the air.
I am so anxious to get on with my life I fail to hear the lovely melodies that nature sings.
There is beauty in the smallest of the flowers and the tiniest of creatures.
There is beauty in the grandest of the mountains and the biggest of the stars.
There is beauty in the fresh scent of a new morning just born.
There is beauty in the night flowers that perfume the air when day is done.
There is beauty in the ruggedness of nature that lives in the peaks and the ranges.
And I am overwhelmed by beauty in the awesome vastness of outer space as I look at the night skies.
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.
When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva
and spread the mud on the man’s eyes,
saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’.
Then he went and washed and came back able to see.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask,
‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’
Some were saying, ‘It is he.’
Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’
He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’
John 9:1,6-9,
There are times I get so caught up in my insensitivity and self-righteousness,
I am blinded to the goodness all around me.
Somebody does me a good turn out of nowhere
and I try to look for a catch in the kindness.
Or, I fail to say “Thank you” to someone who does me good
because the person has hurt me sometime in the past.
I am given a chance to do good;
instead I refuse to do so, saying the other person does not deserve it.
I see others doing good but I refuse to acknowledge them
because they did not invite me to participate.
And how often I have failed to see the goodness in others
just because they spoke differently or behaved differently of looked different.
Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight.
He said to them, ‘He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.’
Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.”
John 9:13-17
I have been so used to certain things from my childhood that
I can sometimes be blind to the truth that looks new and unfamiliar to me.
I believe in love but can there be truth in the love between a man and another man?
Or between a woman and another woman?
I believe in the abundance there is in nature but how can I miss the fact
that nature is now groaning from man’s excesses.
How can I fail to see that I should take out from nature only that which I need?
I am advanced in years and learning new things now takes more effort than before.
I am so set in my ways yet I am constantly challenged to learn new things
and adopt new perspectives.
Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
Yet, old age does bring me a measure of wisdom.
There are things I see better now and am more appreciative of.
There are things I used to dream of or pray for that did not come about.
And looking back, I am glad and happy they did not happen.
There were things I cried over in bitterness and disappointment.
Now, I realize I am a better and stronger person because of those events.
There are mistakes and blunders that I have regretted for many years.
Now, they turn out to be blessings in disguise.
And the other things I am still hoping for?
I have eternity to look forward to to make them happen with my God.
Jesus heard that they had driven him out,
and when he found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’
He answered, ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.’
Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.’
He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshipped him.
John 9:34-38