A Look at Blindness

And so today  we celebrate the World Braille Day to commemorate the   birthday of Louis Braille who invented  the Braille language that enables the blind  and visually impaired to read and write.This has helped to ensure that this disability has not robbed them of the benefits of being literate.Blindness could be attributed to several causes and has several types,all of which  usually impose some limitations making it an issue of concern to everyone involved.

God is also concerned about blindness.In the Old Testament,he placed a curse on any one who leads the blind astray ( Deuteronomy 27:18 ).The writers of the gospels were also careful to let us know that Jesus was equally concerned about the blind and healed several of them (Matthew 9:27-28,12:22,Mark 8:22-23,John 9:),mentioning Bartimeaus(Mark 10:46-51) as an example of his personal touch.Part of Jesus's mission statement included restoring sight to the blind(Luke 4:18,John 9: 39b).

The world without Christ is in a state of spiritual blindness caused by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 3:4)  and God expects us to help the blind like Job did(Job 29:15).Sometimes this might mean witnessing verbally but the most powerful witnesses are usually a life lived out for God whose joy is unchanged by circumstances (1 Peter 2:12).But for us to lead the blind, it is imperative that we are not also blind so that we do not end up in the ditch(Matthew 5:14).

As Christians, we can suffer from spiritual blindness and should be wary of the causes such as hatred(1 John 2:9-11)   or spiritual visual impairment which can be caused by inability to add  qualities such as goodness,knowledge,...love to  our basic faith in an increasing measure.(2 Peter 1:5-9).

Louis Braille was not born blind but became blind at the age of three.Those three years when he had his sight put enough  passion in him with a vision  that caused him to help others.We as  Christians were at one time  blinded by the god of this world but have been translated to the kingdom of light (Colosians 1:13,Ephesians 5;8)with its many benefits.This leaves us with an obligation   of helping others  to receive their sight. This can only be done through the preaching of the gospel (Romans 10:14)  by the power of the Spirit(Luke 4:18).His immense contributions to the physically blind and visually impaired have caused Louise to be honoured every January 4th.  The Bible promises us a greater reward and compensation to any work done for the spiritually blind who are unsaved,counting us as wise in this world  (Proverbs 11:30b ) and promising that we will shine as stars  forever(Daniel 12:3).

Yours in Him,
Grace Tom-Lawyer