"We all get caught up in what we think, and believe it's the truth."

(more of that song by Ellis)

Acts 9:10-19a
Saul, who had been fiercely persecuting Christians, had a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, followed by blindness. A vision then led Christian Ananias to overcome his fear of Paul and go and miraculously restore his sight. Something like scales fell from Paul's eyes, and he could see.

Of course he could now see both literally and spiritually. Where before he was an enemy of Christ and his followers, now he became the greatest advocate for Jesus. He saw him an entirely different way.

The scripture does not say what it felt like for those scales to fall from Paul's eyes.

Was it easy, a relief, an unburdening?
Or was it like having a part of himself ripped away?

Usually when we are forced to see someone in a radically different way-- whether better or worse -- it is painful.
We have to give up what we thought; acknowledge we were wrong! And we begin to live with a new truth.

If the person is better than we thought, we grieve the time lost on our misconceptions. Or worse, like Paul, we know we actually harmed someone we should have helped.

If our eyes are opened to see the wrong in someone that we had not been aware of before... Well, I remember what Jesus said about taking the plank out of my own eyes -- so maybe I won't go there today.


Jesus, help me to see others through your eyes.
And I pray that I have raised my children to go out into the world ready to do the same.

2 July Saturday