Perspective! Being able to see things 'clearly'! I can vividly remember the first time I was being fitted for eyeglasses. I couldn't believe how much of the world I was missing as a result of not seeing things clearly! In reality, the world that I was part of was always there: the people, the buildings, the signs, the scenery. I wasn't blind, but I came to discover after putting on my new glasses, how blurry my vision had been. This reminds me of the healing of a blind man at Bethsaida during the days that Jesus was on earth.

"They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, 'Do you see anything?' He looked up and said, 'I see people; they look like trees walking around.' Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly."
(Mark 8:21-25).

What lessons can be learned in this one simple event?

1. Spiritually speaking, we all enter our world blind - we just are not able to see how glorious and majestic is the Lord. In fact, we are spiritually blind as to the meaning & purpose of life on planet earth! But even more than that, we are not able to see the glorious face of our Lord!
    

2. We all need a life-transforming experience where we encounter God placing His gentle & loving hands upon us and, ordering our blind eyes to be 'opened'.
    

3. Now comes a matter of grave importance. It's one thing to be able to see; it's quite another thing to be able to see life accurately as God intended. This reminds me of an encounter Jesus had with the religious leaders of His day concerning another blind person. Because Jesus had healed this blind person on the Sabbath (a no-no as far as the Pharisees were concerned) the man was thrown out of the synagogue. Jesus finds him and then proceeds to reveal Himself to him as the Son of man - the man responds by saying, 'Lord, I believe' and begins to worship Him (John 9:35-41). Jesus then turns to the Pharisees who were present and essentially tells them this message: this man who you have thrown out of the synagogue came to me admitting that he was blind. As a result, today he sees. On the other hand, you Pharisees, convinced that you see, remain spiritually blind. Such a pity! All you needed to do in order to have received your spiritual healing was to admit that you were spiritually blind and you too, like this other man, would have had your eyesight restored and you would have had a spiritual transformation like he has had! You missed it because you were too proud to admit you were blind!
    

4. Throughout our life time, we will meet people walking around seeing people like trees. Yes, in one sense, they do see! But in another sense, their vision of reality is distorted! Sadly, they have no understanding of who God is! And, yes, there are some who even think that they are God! Talk about "seeing people like trees"!
    

5. We all have a decision to make: we can be like the Pharisees who allow their pride to keep them from acknowledging their spiritual blindness. Or we can be like the blind man who honestly admits to being spiritually blind. We can choose to come to the One who is a Master of opening blind eyes - we can choose to fall upon our knees - we can choose to worship Him as the Son of God. And what will the result be: we will see things "clearly".