What Do You See?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free. (Luke 4:18)

              Look up from reading this and look at whatever lies right in front of you. Take it all in for about ten seconds.

              Good. Now, without looking back up, what did you see? Was it the room you are sitting in? Did you see the color of the walls, the décor, the flooring? Or did you look up and out of a window? What was out there? Trees, grass, the neighbor’s house? Did you really see what was right in front of you?

              Depending on how we define “see,” I will tell you that you did NOT see with your own eyes what was right in front of you. You saw bits and pieces of what was right in front of you and your brain filled in the rest.

              That is how vision works. Your eye darts about, faster than we can even perceive, taking in small details of the world around us, little bits of information, sends these signals to the brain, and the brain paints a full picture of the world we “see.” That’s why those visual games you see on the internet, and most magic tricks, work.

              Healing the blind was one of Jesus’ most common miracles. The gospels are filled with stories of Jesus restoring sight to the blind. It was so important, Luke builds it into Jesus’ mission statement, along with bringing good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freeing the oppressed.

              Maybe our spiritual eyes cannot see the whole picture any better than our physical eyes. Maybe the healing of our sight means being able to “see” everything God is doing around us and “seeing” where God is leading us on this journey.

              The more we keep looking with our physical eyes, the more information our brain takes in to fill out the picture of the world around us. We also need to keep looking to God and God’s picture of our world. We will never see it all, but the more we see, the more we can fill in the picture of God’s kingdom and be part of the good news Jesus brings.