giving sight to the blind

While driving back home from the Hospice this afternoon, I was listening to the radio.

I heard a most remarkable story. It was about a man who, two years back or so, was blinded - as he thought for life. Some molten aluminium had exploded in his eyes and left him blind.

And now, by means of some strange and amazing surgery, now the man could see.

They didn't go into the details that much (thankfully!). But the drift of it was that the man had been enabled now to see by means of his son's tooth.

(Yes, I did a swift double take as well and wondered if I'd heard the thing aright!)

The surgeon, it seems, had removed the actual eye-ball, done some sort of 'clean-up' work with the eye-socket and somehow inserted the man's son's tooth, with a hole drilled through that tooth and a lens now set in place. And now the guy, who'd thought at first he'd never see again - now, as I say, the guy can see.

I have to say I checked the date. I thought, it's not even the first of March, let alone April! I thought, it's not St Patrick's Day or anything (the man whose blindness had been cured was Irish, we'd been told).

You can see, my mind was working overtime to try and figure out the catch! I mean, this was the BBC: and if you hear it from the Beeb .. well, it must be true!

Anyway. Amazing, I thought, how sight can so simply be given to folk, who otherwise are blind.

Which is what I'm always trying to do myself, I guess. Give sight to the blind.

It's not exploding, molten aluminium which has left so many blind today. But something else. Maybe the speed and the hot intensity of the life our society lives. Maybe the bright attractions of so many modern 'things'. I don't know.

But there's something today which has blinded the eyes of countless folk and keeps them now from seeing beyond the things that meet the eye.

A blindness which means that God just can't be seen.

Today I seemed to be reminded that it's often in the strangest ways God makes the blind to see.

Like being at the Hospice itself. Which is where I'd just been when I heard this bit of news.

And I started to think of the way that the folk I'd been seeing in the Hospice had caught a glimpse of God. Just by my being at their side. Chatting with them. Praying with them.

For them, at that time, with the sockets of their sight of God perhaps removed a bit by all the way their cancer's wreaking havoc in their bodies and their lives - for them, at that time, a simple thing, like being there at their side and taking time with them, a simple thing like that was pretty much the 'tooth-encompassed lens' by which they caught a sight of God.

I started to think of all that my day had held and how it is that sight is being restored to those who have been blinded by those forces of 'exploding smolten aluminium' of our modern life.

It's little things that often are the lens that people need. Things you'd never think would be the means of giving sight.

I mean, if you'd told me before today that a tooth, with its centre drilled out, could be in itself the means of a man who'd been blinded being able completely to see ... well, I simply would not have believed it.

Like, how often have you found yourself accosted with the words, 'Lend me your tooth, so I can see!' I mean ...!

So I ran through my mind the countless little episodes my day has held. And I started to think that maybe all of these are in their way just 'teeth with their centres drilled through'.

Little things of no great consequence at all which somehow in the providence of God become the means whereby another sees.

Going along to the school and being there at important events. The assembly again, this morning. Being pleasant and thoughtful and courteous and kind to the teachers and staff, and the children, of course, as well.

A tooth with its centre drilled through. A means whereby some folk who've never really caught a glimpse of God, perhaps begin to see.

The midweek lunchtime service with the lunch that people share. For many there, perhaps that too provides a 'tooth-encompassed lens' whereby, amidst the empty-socket loneliness of life, they catch the sight of God.

The little acts of kindness through the day. Like carrying up the steps to the Reception Area here a little baby's car-seat (with the baby snuggled down and fast asleep therein). A tiny bit of help towards a mother as she struggles with the ceaseless-seeming burdens of her life.

She'd come for her lunch the previous day. For the first time, I think. And here she was back, to meet with her friends again. Little acts of kindness. Perhaps they are, more times than we might ever think, perhaps they are the 'tooth-encompassed lenses' people need.

Which help them see.

Or sitting round the table with some friends at night, exploring how God's working in our lives.

Tonight was just another sort of milestone on the journey that the couple I've been seeing this past year have made. Expanding from it being just the three of us to include another couple.

The three grows into five. In subtle ways as well the whole dynamics sort of change. And we all grow. We all begin to get a better view of who God is and what he's like and what it is he means we should enjoy.

A guy once famously sent a message to Jesus in which he simply asked - Are you the one?

And Jesus replied - The blind see!

This guy does miracles. Not the least of which is enabling the blind to see.

I'm keen to get my teeth into this work!