February 9, 2021 | Blindness
On November 30, 1991 fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster.
We read that story and we wonder why people would do such a thing. Didn’t they see the storm? Didn’t they recognize the danger? Yet, Many people still today, maybe even you, are headed for certain destruction. They may even see the error of their ways, yet they blindly move forward thinking that some kind of worldly relief will come. All too often this leads to their ultimate ruin.
God knew that because of sin, many would blindly take the wide road of worldliness but, like a good doctor who sees a patient on a self-destructive course, the LORD wasn’t going to be put off easily. So that we wouldn’t stay lost in our spiritual blindness, He provided, through His Son, a way to make the blind to see.
Jesus said in John 9:39, “For judgement I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Here He is talking to the willing among us, and also to those who have shut Him out of their lives. For those who are open to His message, He has provided insight. For many of those who have shut Him out, He knows that only by getting lost in the darkness can they begin to search for the light.
So that we might find favor with eyes intact and ears open, God gave us His only Son so that the hearts of all the searching might be given opportunity to see the path to salvation. “For God, who said, “Let the light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Yet that light does us no go if we’re not willing to take off the blinders of worldliness which cause us to follow our own path while rejecting the light. If we keep depending on the world to solve all of our problems, the blindness will overwhelm us.
Scripture reminds us in Revelation 3:17 that if we say “we are rich, we have prospered, and need nothing, we are failing to realize that we are really “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” In other words, if we blindly head into the storm of self-worship and worldliness, we will remain lost, unable to see. We will be people to be pitied because of our spiritual blindness and lack of preparation.
Yet if we gain insight through the light of Christ found in His Word, we will emerge from the storm intact or avoid it all together. God could not let His children walk in darkness, forever blinded by the blackness of our own creation, so He sent His Son to shine a light onto the path toward everlasting life.
John speaks to us in 1 John 2:11, “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” We see it in our world, in our country and even in our own homes. Hatred has blinded us because hatred is not from God. Trust in God and in His Son to light the path chosen for you. Let the love of God rule in your hearts and follow Him. If you do, He promises you the light of life so that the blind may see. Please pray with me:
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us enough to send your Son so that we would no longer be lost in blindness. Open our eyes to your direction and lead us off the wide path of darkness onto the narrow path lit by the glory of your Son. Amen.
