Look Instead

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?” Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw. (from John 9, The Message)

Jesus sees. The blind man wants to see. Jesus is the Light. And He has the power to utter a word and make blind men see. So why does He choose to use dust and spit?

Look instead for what God can do. 

So He spits on the ground, makes a clay paste, and puts it on the man’s eyes. You know, because mud in your eyes totally clears up your vision. He could have stopped there. He could have let that be the end of it. But just as in the story of Naaman, He asks the man to act. “Go wash at the pool of Siloam”, He says.

The man goes…and He sees. The chapter goes on to say that he went back to family who’d known him his whole life, and they didn’t believe it was him.

So, the Light of the world + mud + a blind man’s bath = sight.

Maybe we’re looking for God to move in our lives in a certain way when He has something entirely different in mind? Maybe He’s clouding our vision temporarily so we’ll act? Maybe He wants us to look outside ourselves and our preconceived notions of how He is supposed to work and look instead for what He can do? What if the Light is taking blinded eyes, spitting on the very ground we’re standing on, mucking up our vision so we will hear Him speak His direction, and then waiting for us to move – to go to Siloam – in order to see?

How about we turn our eyes upon Him and find out?