Blind?

Mark 8:22-26

A man blind, maybe from birth or maybe from a disease or accident later in life, is brought to Jesus to be healed.

Jesus spits on his hands and places them over the man's eyes.

When they are opened and the man is asked what he sees he responds "I see people, they look like trees walking around."

So Jesus once again places his hands on the man's eyes and they are opened and he can see completly.

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Several things stike me about this passage of scripture. First of all why wasn't the man healed completly the first time Jesus put his hands on him? I don't think it was because Jesus was too weak to completly heal the man the first time he covered his eyes. God in the flesh not powerful enough to heal a blind man on the first attempt? NO........I think maybe instead that the man did not have complete faith the first time Jesus placed his hands on him. The man was brought before Jesus by others. He did not willingly come himself and maybe it took that first "fuzzy" openness of the eyes for the man to really believe that Jesus could heal him. It is also encouraging to see that Jesus does heal him completly even after that first intitial lack of faith. God is gracious even when we doubt and are weak.

The second thing that strikes me is the man's response as to what he sees when his eyes are opened. The first response he has even when his vision is still fuzzy is "people". Not the sky, not a building, but people. I think sometimes I need to pray more for my blindness. All to often I am just as blind as the man in this story. I fail to really see the people around me and to see them clearly! Caught up in my own little world I walk around in blindness not able to see those around me as they need to be seen.

Jesus is willing to heal and open our eyes and really let us see if we only let him.