AUDIO MEDITATION:

Gioacchino Assereto (Italian, 1600-1649), Christ Healing the Blind Man. Public domain.

FULL TEXT:

When the blind man had been healed, he was transformed—people who had known him as a beggar didn’t recognize him. His neighbors said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”

In his blindness, darkness was the only thing the man had known. He didn’t ask to be healed but is radically changed by his encounter with Jesus. He used to sit and beg, but he no longer has to do so. By the end of the story, he recognizes Jesus’ divinity and worships him.

This painting shows the sometimes intrusive nature of grace. God doesn’t work in our lives to simply sustain a difficult situation—God creates us anew. Grace can overwhelm us—we don’t always fully understand it, and it can knock us over.

What might we do to better cooperate with the grace by which God intends to act decisively in our lives?