Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BLIND (06/03/21)
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TITLE: No Longer a Nobody | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
06/10/21 -
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"What's black?" he responded. Nothing is what he saw. Nothing was what he was.
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Voices intruded on his nothingness. He had heard these voices before when the Rabbi Jesus was teaching. It must be Jesus and his disciples. Why was it that everyone thought since he was blind, he was also deaf?
So now he wasn’t nothing. He got to be an object lesson for the rabbi teaching his disciples. He sighed. He had heard this question asked countless times. It was easier for people to be blind to his plight than to reach out and touch him. After all, maybe the blindness was catching.
The disciples didn’t call him by name, but why should they? They probably didn’t even think he had a name; after all, why would a nobody have a name? But who else could they be talking about? Who else was the source of endless speculation as to why he was in such a miserable state? It had to be punishment for something. How he could have sinned while still inside his mother, he didn't know. He didn't care. Maybe he had given his mother too much indigestion.
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."
Jesus said some other words, but Celidonius's mind was too busy taking in Jesus' first words. Jesus said Celidonius and his parents had NOT sinned. A great weight rolled off him, a weight of guilt he hadn't even known was there until it was gone. "The works of God might be displayed in him." The works of God. What could that possibly mean?
"I am the light of the world." He heard Jesus say. Light. What would that even look like. Light. He liked the sound of it. Next thing he knew, he felt strong yet gentle hands pressing mud over his eyes. He knew it was mud from his childhood days of playing in the mud and being scolded by his mother. What could possibly be happening? He wasn't sure, but the touch was soothing and healing to his soul. He hadn’t felt such a loving touch since his mother would bathe him as a child. No gentle, loving touch on the street. Begging brought only blows or avoidance.
"Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam," the kind, gentle voice told him. He knew of the pool. He would go there at times to cool off in the heat. As he made his way to the pool, his mind was buzzing with questions. Why had Jesus put the mud on his eyes? Had he healed him? But no one had ever opened the eyes of someone born blind.
He could tell by the smell of the water when he had reached the pool. He stepped into the water and washed off the mud. His eyes remained screwed shut, wanting to hold onto hope just a little longer. Was he going to see? Or was it all just a cruel joke? No, those had not been the voice and hands of a cruel jokester. He opened his eyes wide and...
HE SAW! Colors and images were all around him. Colors and images and LIGHT. Jesus was indeed the Light of the World and had brought light into his hopeless darkness. He laughed aloud and splashed in the pool as if he were a young boy again.
And now, instead of nothing, he saw EVERYTHING. He didn't know what to look at next. It had to have been the Messiah who had just healed him. Who else could open the eyes of someone born blind?
Or would have even wanted to.
And he knew he was no longer a nothing, a nobody. He had been chosen to display the works of God.
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Like Celidonius, you may sometimes feel like a nothing, a nobody. Let the healing touch of Jesus open your eyes to who you really are, a wonderful work of God.
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