VISION -- THE CURE FOR BLINDNESS Devotional for January 25, from "Good Seeds"

I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19).

Saul of Tarsus was a fanatic. A new religion had touched down. He saw it as a potential threat to the peace of Jerusalem, a counterfeit belief with a leader claiming equality with God. (No wonder He had been crucified!) And so, Saul determined to crush this new cult – nip it in the bud, kill it before it multiplied. A fanatic sees things oh so clearly. He has one mind and purpose. And yet, he is not so much a thinker as a doer. He has a zeal for change and he is dissatisfied until progress is under way. No wonder, then, that we find this young Pharisee single-handedly rounding up these “cultists,” doing to them whatever was necessary to insure they would never again practice or propagate their poisonous doctrine. Fanaticism, like faith, is only a means to an end, and therefore only as good as its object. Saul was a desperate fanatic, a “fan” of the Law of Moses. But he was blind to the truth: surrounded by the hot light of God, yet still engulfed in cold, spiritual darkness. Later he wrote, “Their minds were hardened, and when Moses is read a veil lies over their heart (II Cor. 3:14-15). Paul knew whereof he was speaking, for he had been there himself…until that day on the Damascus road, when a curious thing happened: just as the wicked sinners of Sodom were pierced clean through by fireballs of brimstone out of heaven, so this self-righteous sinner was struck to the ground by a missile of pure light shot straight out of Heaven. He was instantly blinded, but as in the case of all who lose one sense, another was super sensitized. There was a voice. His friends couldn’t make it out, but now he had 20-20 hearing: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And although Saul remained completely sightless for some weeks, it is amazing how useful his eyes became during this time: He couldn’t see a thing, but still Jesus said to Him, “I have appeared to you” (16). In his blindness He saw the Lord clearly, with the eyes of faith, for “when a man turns to the Lord, the veil is lifted” (II Cor. 3:16). Then Jesus said, “I am sending you to be a witness to the Gentiles, to open their eyes…” (18). “Open their eyes, Lord? Wait a minute, mine are still glued tightly shut!” But it was okay, because as his physical retinas remained on holiday, his spiritual optical nerves became sensitized to the truths of God, to the point where he could conclude his testimony before the Romans by calling what had happened to him a vision. So with us. The next time we lose something of great value – health, a dear loved one, a cherished possession – let us take it as a heavenly vision. Maybe God is blinding us to these lesser things so that we can catch a glimpse of Him!