To See or Not to See (6 of 8)
Series: Extraordinary Encounters with Jesus
Keith Krell
John 9:1-41
Shalom, my friends, God's peace be upon you! I am an ordinary Jewish man. My name isn't important. If you'd like, you can call me, ''Mr. Mud.'' Oh, I'm sorry; I'm getting ahead of myself. In case you didn't notice from my sunken, glazed over eyes, I was blind. To be precise, I was born blind. This made growing up rather difficult. While other kids were having fun playing outside, I was alone and stuck inside. My life felt like a game of ''hide and seek,'' except I was always ''it.'' I grew up feeling ostracized and rejected. After all, no one wants to spend time with a blind boy.
Stop and think about my plight. Can you fathom never witnessing a sunrise, a sunset, a rainbow, or a mountain? Can you imagine never observing a piece of art or a person's face? Did you know that 85% of the information the brain receives from our five senses comes through vision. Ten percent comes from hearing. The remaining five percent comes from the other three senses combined. I'm sure you can agree that life without sight is a tragedy. I felt like I merely existed, without really living.
I remember thinking to myself, ''What trouble can you get in before you are born?! Did I kick my mom too hard?'' You see, I grew up in a culture where we assumed all illness was the result of one's own sin or the parents' sins. Our Jewish teachers firmly believed that infants were capable of sinning in their mother's womb. Some taught that if a man even looked at a woman's heel, he would beget degenerate children. I grew up hearing this nonsense all the time!
Eventually, I decided to leave home. I didn't want to continue to be a burden to my parents. They were barely making a living as it was. I was supposed to provide for them in their old age, not vice versa. I had to make it on my own. Unfortunately, the only profession that was available to me was begging. I wanted so badly to work ...
Series: Extraordinary Encounters with Jesus
Keith Krell
John 9:1-41
Shalom, my friends, God's peace be upon you! I am an ordinary Jewish man. My name isn't important. If you'd like, you can call me, ''Mr. Mud.'' Oh, I'm sorry; I'm getting ahead of myself. In case you didn't notice from my sunken, glazed over eyes, I was blind. To be precise, I was born blind. This made growing up rather difficult. While other kids were having fun playing outside, I was alone and stuck inside. My life felt like a game of ''hide and seek,'' except I was always ''it.'' I grew up feeling ostracized and rejected. After all, no one wants to spend time with a blind boy.
Stop and think about my plight. Can you fathom never witnessing a sunrise, a sunset, a rainbow, or a mountain? Can you imagine never observing a piece of art or a person's face? Did you know that 85% of the information the brain receives from our five senses comes through vision. Ten percent comes from hearing. The remaining five percent comes from the other three senses combined. I'm sure you can agree that life without sight is a tragedy. I felt like I merely existed, without really living.
I remember thinking to myself, ''What trouble can you get in before you are born?! Did I kick my mom too hard?'' You see, I grew up in a culture where we assumed all illness was the result of one's own sin or the parents' sins. Our Jewish teachers firmly believed that infants were capable of sinning in their mother's womb. Some taught that if a man even looked at a woman's heel, he would beget degenerate children. I grew up hearing this nonsense all the time!
Eventually, I decided to leave home. I didn't want to continue to be a burden to my parents. They were barely making a living as it was. I was supposed to provide for them in their old age, not vice versa. I had to make it on my own. Unfortunately, the only profession that was available to me was begging. I wanted so badly to work ...
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