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Minister’s Letter Seeing through the blindness The healing stories of Jesus in the gospels are full of nuance. On the surface they about a person being physically healed from, say, blindness. But in every case there is also a subtext, something else is going on and the healing doesn’t take place just physically. It is an invitation and there is always a deeper purpose. In the case of blindness and restored sight, there is also spiritua l blindness being exposed in the Pharisees or the o nlooking crowd or sometimes the disciples and, by extension, you and me. The healing of the spiritual blindness is left unresolved long af ter the physical healing has taken place. It leaves us with an o pen question, where are w e blind and how do we recei ve this real, deep and lasting sight . Arguably, its this second s tra nd that is t he point of the healing stories, and we can easily get bogged down in the fl ashy miracle rat her the underlying t heme. In th e case of blindness, whether or n ot we are healed in bo dy, the writers o f the gospels want us to see clearly that God is at work in the world around us and in us. But often we ar e too blind and refuse to see. David Adams in his book, Po werlines, has a poem titled, Vision. It expresses the heartfelt prayer:- O Lord, Extend our vision, Our clearness of sight. Open our eyes to see Beyond the obvious, To perceive that this is your world . You are in it, You invade it, You pervade it, You enfold it, It is immersed in you. Here we encounter y ou, Here we meet you, Here you come to us, Here your presence waits to be r evealed. O Lord, Extend our vision, Our clearness of sight. Open our eyes to see