Back in The Saddle

It's been a while.


I vacillate between being too busy to write, and being too complacent to write.


But every now and I again, I hit that happy medium, a productive zone where I think I can and will make things happen in most facets of my life, including my online existence.


So here I am.  I've gotten rid of my tight golf swing that turns over everything to the left, and I'm not quite yet to the tired, muscles-aching slice that comes when this out of shape body has had enough physical activity for one afternoon.


In that wonderful "in between" is where I find my creative mind...and do my best work.


So, anywhoo...here goes...


For those of you who don't know, I've taken to reading the Bible while "indisposed."  Yes, that's right.  I do my Bible study in questionable environs.  I look at it this way - I know that, at least once a day, I'll be reading my Bible, even if it is for just a few minutes...and sometimes, I get to read it for much...MUCH...longer.   Unpleasant imagery aside, we all must find contemplative time.


Reading in Mark today, I stumbled across the following:


Mark 8:22-26 (NRSV)

They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, ‘Do not even go into the village.’ 

I don't recall having ever discussed this particular passage before.  The caption before these verses reads "Jesus Cures a Blind Man at Bethsaida."  I also don't claim to be a Biblical scholar, but as much as I have read, and heard, it surprised me that I've never heard a sermon, or read an analysis, of this particular bit of scripture.


Most of you reading this know that I wear contacts or glasses.  You probably don't know that I'm probably legally blind.  There is no way the Georgia DDS would let me near a car without corrective eye wear.  To put it more plainly...if I were sitting in Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, I'd have a hard time reading the end zone scripts of Auburn and Tigers.


But here, our fellow believer from Bethsaida must have been truly, nearly irrevocably blind.  It took Jesus not once, but TWICE, to fix this man's eyesight.  I looked around but I couldn't locate another Biblical example of Jesus having to "give it the ol' college try" once again just to make sure his healing took.


This immediately called to mind the scene in Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, when Merry and Pippin first meet Treebeard, the Ent, who has rescued them from the clutches of a particularly nasty looking orc.  The conversation went something like this:

Merry: The tree is talking!

Treebeard:  Tree?  I am no tree.  I am an Ent!

Pippin:  Stop talking to it Merry!  Don't encourage it!

Jesus must've been a bit disconcerted when the man claimed to see people that looked like trees walking.  He clearly needed a little more tending to.  After a second application of Jesus' salve of choice, his own saliva, the man's vision was fully restored.  Hallelujah!  Note to self: This would have probably been more agreeable than the scales Paul received or the dirt and saliva mixture that the first blind man, outside of Jerusalem, was given before he too, was healed.


Jesus loved to make points for the disciples.  Certainly, at least one or two of them were around for some "education."  Jesus was constantly revealing Himself to them, giving them bits and pieces of His true nature, and purpose.  Perhaps this miracle was a part of that.


Or maybe, just maybe ... Jesus used this as an illustration of the power of faith.


We know from Jesus' mustard seed parable that where faith is concerned, a little goes a long, long way.  Like, being able to move mountains.  Being able to raise the dead.  Being able to walk through "this sorry world", as Hank Williams aptly put it, with a brave face, undaunted by the taunts and jeers of others.   Not being smug in your faith, your beliefs, but being comfortable with them.


So, perhaps the man from Bethsaida lacked faith, or more appropriately, he had to be shown a little of what was behind Door Number 2 before he committed himself to believing that this rabbi, this Christ, was indeed the Great Physician that he had heard of spoken of often in incredulous tones around the village.


The mustard seed parable also tells us, implicitly, that true faith is relatively rare.  Perhaps it has always been so.  I suspect there are enough obstacles to faith to prevent most of us from reaching the plateau our natural human yearning for the Divine calls us to seek - that level of comfort, of trust, of acceptance after which we no longer feel the need to question, to analyze, to perfect our faith.


I'm still a seeker.  I can see, even if my vision is murky and untrustworthy.  His truth is illuminating, though I, like the blind man, still want to insist that Jesus show me what's behind the curtain.


One of these days I hope to come to the realization that there is no curtain.  That, I think, is close to true faith.