Jo Bower's Blog

I was teaching John 9:1-38’s story of Jesus healing the blind from birth man,
and introduced it by using the action of a blind person touching a person’s face to know what they looked like.
And God spoke….

Blind from birth people feel with their hands.
They form images of the world around them
By what they experience, hear, and feel with their hands.
Incomplete to sighted peoples’ minds,
But I’ve heard it said for some, seeing becomes unnecessary.

Blind from birth people see with their hands,
And when they know you well,
They may ask to touch your face
To get an image of what you look like.
And it seems to me with that request, a deeper trust is achieved.

In a sense, we all are blind when we approach God.
We can’t see a face.
We touch only representations of his face,
Feel his touch in our lives,
Experience the informing presence of God.

We read the words given so long ago,
And study other people’s insights.
We seek a life that expresses the balance between
Seeking personal peace and reaching out in holy risk taking,
But it is in prayer that we reach out and touch the face of God.