Seeing More Clearly

-Andrea Haughian

I was reading in Mark this week:

"Taking the man who was blind by the hand, he brought him out of the village. After spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, 'Do you see anything?' He looked up and said, 'I see people, but they look like trees, walking around.' Then again Jesus put his hands on his eyes, and he looked intently, and his sight was restored, and he began to see everything clearly." -Mark 8:23-25.

In reading this scripture, I was encouraged that although God is fully capable of healing me instantaneously, more often than not, my healing is a process, and a very long one at that.

I see in my own life a pattern very similar to this blind man's. Jesus comes, takes me by the hand, and leads me away to somewhere quiet. He touches me and speaks to me. He asks about my thoughts and the way I see things, and he begins to show me his truth, giving me a new perspective so that I can see more clearly and begin to heal. Sometimes that happens in an instant, sometimes it takes a while, and other times it's a process over a lifetime.

It is encouraging to know that God knows each of us intimately and that he works in our hearts in a very personal way. My healing might not look like yours, in timing or in manner. But what is the same is where our healing begins and ends: with Jesus. It begins with him in our salvation, and it continues through a lifetime of knowing him, loving him, receiving from him, and being changed by his love for us. Healing is a process of seeing things more clearly through intimacy with Jesus, as he takes us by the hand and shows us the truth of who he is and who that makes us.

So my question to you is this: where might Jesus be inviting you to step away from the noise of life, taking you by the hand, to help you see yourself, your circumstances, or even him more clearly?