Helen Keller (1880-1968) was a blind and deaf American author, disability rights advocate, and lecturer. She lost her sight and hearing after an illness when she was 19 months old.
Despite her deafness and blindness, she was always inspiring. She once wrote a magazine article entitled: “Three Days to See.” In that article she outlined what things she would like to see if she were granted just three days of sight. It was a powerful, thought- provoking article.
On the first day she said she wanted to see friends. Day two she would spend seeing nature. The third day she would spend in her home city of New York watching the busy city and the workday of the present.
She concluded it with these words: “I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you were stricken blind.”
As bad as blindness is today, it was so much worse in Jesus’ day. Today a blind person at least has the hope of living a useful life with proper training. Some of the most skilled and creative people in our society are blind, like Andrea Bocelli.
But in first century Palestine blindness meant that you would be subjected to abject poverty. You would be reduced to begging for a living. You lived at the mercy and the generosity of others. Unless your particular kind of blindness was self-correcting, there was no hope whatsoever for a cure. The skills that were necessary were still centuries beyond the medical knowledge of the day.
It is little wonder then that one of the signs of the coming of the Jesus the Messiah was that the blind should receive their sight…
If YOU were not able to see like Helen Keller, and were granted three days of sight, what would YOU like to see on each of those three days?
GOD HAS A PURPOSE FOR YOUR PAIN, A REASON FOR YOUR STRUGGLE AND A GIFT FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS. DON’T GIVE UP!
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