The American Foundation for the Blind is adamant about providing aids for people with limited vision. Whether visually impaired, legally blind, or truly blind, the foundation does its best to see that everyone gets the best help possible.
People who are truly blind don’t see a black world all around them. It’s like asking a sighted person if the view behind their head looks black to them. It doesn’t look anything. It just isn’t.
Yet blind people can still sense the world around them by air movement, warmth (or cold), or small sounds that many of us tune out as inconsequential. They know when the world around them changes.
Mark 10:46-47 begins the story of Blind Bartimaeus. He sensed the world around him through swirling air, the warmth of human bodies, and the sounds of people living their lives. Then, one day his world changed. He sensed Jesus walking along the road. The Scriptures tell us:
“And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ ”
The real excitement comes from Jesus’ response to Bartimaeus’ determined cry. We find the Master’s words in Mark 10:52:
“And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.”
In a spiritual sense, we are Blind Bartimaeus. We can’t see the spiritual world around us. It just “isn’t” to our natural eyes. We have to pay attention to things we cannot see if we want to know the precise moment when Jesus walks by. It’s in the small things: the movements of the air, the warmth of an approaching body, or the sounds just at the threshold of hearing that tell us Jesus is gathering at our side.
In Mark 10:48, we read the response of the world:
“And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ ”
Bartimaeus had sensed Jesus, and he refused to be quiet. When the world tells us God is not around, we must do as Bartimaeus did. We must raise our voices in spite of the world’s protests, for Jesus is calling us unto him. When we throw off our cloaks and run to him, he will say to us: “Go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Forget what we see with our eyes. We find Jesus with our hearts.
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