Scripture: John 9:1–41

I have a vivid memory of an encounter with God when I was a young girl. One night, while saying my nightly prayers, I had the overwhelming sense that God was speaking to me. “I want to do something special with your life,” God said. Overcome by tears and emotion, I said, “yes, God, I want to follow you wherever you lead.”
At nine years old I didn’t have much of a sense of where all that journey would take me. But that moment of encounter, and the encounters that have followed since, serve as a lens that I believe God invites me to see the world through.

Many, if not most, times my encounters with God came through other people. I’ve encountered the presence of God: in the eyes of a child who trusted me, in an old man’s welcome at the end of a dirt road in Costa Rica, in the compassionate presence of a doctor in a dark moment, in a family keeping vigil at the moment of a loved one’s death, in the silent assurance of being known and seen and in the privilege it is to know and see another.

If I consider the common denominator of these moments, I notice that in each of them there was an openness to the awareness that God was bigger than what I expected, wanted, or thought I could bring to the situation. In moments of encounter with God there is both humility and healing… both profound vulnerability and sustaining strength.

I wonder what it would have been like to be there when Jesus healed the blind man. The blind man was changed by the encounter. “I was blind but now I see,” he said. But, how many of the others were able to meet the moment as well? The disciples went quickly to logical explanations for the man’s condition… accepting his blindness as a result of his own sin or the sin of his family. The man’s parents let fear keep them distant from engaging the situation. The religious leaders clung to established rules and traditions, closing themselves off to an encounter with God by discounting Jesus’ actions due to the Sabbath.

I wonder how many more encounters with God that Jesus has tried to lead me toward. How many times have I tried to explain things away, blame the actions of others, leaned into fear, or clung to the ways things have always been in order to avoid the vulnerability of being healed and transformed?

I’ve always been humbled by Jesus’ words at the end of this story: “I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind” (v.39).

What if our encounter with God – and our ability to hear God’s call and invitation in our lives – begins with letting go of all we think we see and know about the people around us? What if the challenges and losses we have sustained are invitations to an encounter? What if the doors that are closing are guiding us to the way that is opening? Where might we be invited in this season of so much change to encounter and see the presence of Christ right before our eyes?

Reflection Questions
How has God met me in places of vulnerability?
Where do I long for clearer vision?
What assumptions do I hold that might God be challenging?

Lenten Practice
Practice Visio Divina with a picture or art piece that has caught your attention lately.
Consider signing up for Cultivating Call Imagination and Sight Laity Gathering on April 24-25 to explore where Jesus is leading you to an encounter with God in your life and calling.