Have you seen the short video on Facebook? As it begins, a young boy is sitting in a
lawn chair outdoors. There are tall,
green trees in the distance and a large expanse of green grass all around
him. The blue sky is clear and the day
is sunny. As the camera begins to focus on the boy, his blue and white checked
shirt and khaki shorts come into view.
He is about 10 years old, and he is holding a smallish brown, cardboard
box in his hands. The people near him,
parents and family, are asking the boy to open up the box. He is clearly intrigued and pleased, if
somewhat overwhelmed.
As the boy sets about opening the package the onlookers, who
are not visible in the picture, are excited and encouraging the child as he
tears open the box. Then comes the
moment we have all been awaiting. The
boy pulls the gift out of the box. It is
a pair of glasses. The boy looks up at
the people watching and seems confused, he does not need glasses to see, and so
why are all of them so excited about these glasses? Everyone in the group at this point is so
excited; they are all telling the boy to put on the glasses. So he does.
Then he begins to turn his head and look around and then he begins to
cry. Overwhelmed, his happy tears run down his face. There is a look of total amazement on the
face of the boy. These are special
glasses; they are designed to aid those who are color blind. The glasses allow a person to see the
different colors that exist in the world.
This child had only ever been able to see black, white and gray. With the glasses that all changes. Before the glasses, he had no concept of the
colors that exist; no way to discern them, no words to describe them. And really, if you cannot see the color red,
how can you know what red it? How can
you know how to describe the color purple?
What words can give an idea of blue? The knowing of the color is in the
seeing of it.
The glasses opened up an entirely new arena of reality for
the boy; one he did not know he was missing.
In the seeing of the colors around him, he knew color. Which gives me a reason to wonder what I
cannot see? Not only what I cannot see,
but what is unfathomable, unknown and perhaps unknowable unless someone gives
me glasses to see. Someone who already
can see the colors and knows the colors are all around and cares about me
enough to let me know what it out there.
A similar situation of “unseeing” is recorded in the book of
2Kings chapter 6. The prophet, Elisha,
is trapped in a city and the enemy king has surrounded it with an army. There is no way to sneak past the soldiers,
horsemen and chariots. Elisha’s servant
is understandably upset at what appears to be certain death. He asks the prophet, “Alas, my master! What
shall we do?” I can only imagine the servant is not encouraged much when Elisha
answers; “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are
with them.” Now, the servant can
certainly count, and he and Elisha make two people, and even the people in the city
are not enough to constitute an army, equipped and ready for battle. Can you imagine the feeling of doubt about
the sanity of the prophet? The power of
the fear that was creeping into his
every muscle, the adrenaline beginning to kick in and the servant’s
frantic search for a way out? This was
the end….
But Elisha knew something that the servant did not. Elisha
saw something the servant could not see.
Like the family of the color
blind boy, who knew color existed, even if the boy did not, Elisha knew the
army of God existed and was present. And
he could see it. The servant had no clue
that the army was real and was in truth present at that very moment. How could he know, how could any person,
know unless those that could see told them.
Elisha prayed for his servant, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he
may see.” What the servant saw, once his
eyes were opened was overwhelming. “And
the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around.”
What exists that we do not see, what exists that we have no
inkling is out there? Have you ever
wondered about that? What are we missing
because we cannot even fathom it exists?
Our sight, our senses do not detect all reality. Our experience of the world and life in the
world is bounded by what we can perceive, but not all reality is apprehended
sensually. What if the sensory
experiences in our lives become blinders on us, limiting what we can see and
know about reality. What if the only
avenue we trust for truth is blocked off because we can’t measure or quantify
it? Could we, in our quest for
definitive answers, be missing an entire universe?
That is why we need the help of someone who can see past the
edge of the blinders, someone who knows that colors exist; someone who can
correct our blindness so we can see fully.
O LORD, I pray, open
our eyes…..