Glory Shining Through The Cracks
There is a story from the Gospel of John where Jesus and his disciples are passing by a blind man, who was begging. Apparently, everyone knew that this particular man had been born blind. In the ancient world, this was a sign of some kind of curse, which made the disciples ask, "Who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus responds, "Neither. This happened so that you would see the glory of God." I've always been troubled by Jesus' response. I suppose it's because I so narrowly escaped total blindness as a child. If my diagnosis of congenital glaucoma had come just a little later, I'd be blind today. Even so, doctors could only save the sight in one eye--I'm legally blind in the other. If I'd succumbed to blindness, I imagine the last thing I would want to hear now is that my blindness happened so that other people could see the glory of God, which is exactly what the man in John's Gospel hear...