They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Then the LORD said to Job, “Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.”
Especially in our Western culture, we like to pay our own way. We don’t like accepting gifts if we cannot reciprocate. We establish elaborate scales to balance debt and social obligations, keeping track of who owes whom what and how much.
This policy of social balance can make it difficult for us to accept God’s gift of grace because we cannot pay for it.
“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.”
Everyone knows a cherry tree will produce cherries and a walnut tree will produce walnuts. The tree has no choice but to produce fruit according to the nature it was given by its Creator. When it comes to people, however, our fruit-bearing nature does become a matter of choice. Jesus told his disciples that if we are willing to be grafted into him, then our Creator will transform our nature from the inside out.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
We all love to hear good news. More than that, we need to hear good news. When our world feels burdened with one dark story after another, telling of cruelty and violence and despair, a story of heroism or generosity calls to us like a beam of sunlight through a bank of storm clouds. Reminders of goodness in the world hearten and refresh us with reasons to hope.
O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Everyone faces make-or-break situations. Something comes along and hits us so hard that we either crumble or find the strength to grow and change through the adversity. Factors that determine whether we will grow or crumble can be age and temperament, the support of peers, physical and emotional health, skills we have acquired in dealing with disappointments and injustices, and the stability of our self-image.
