There was once a blind girl who was bitter and angry because she was blind. She hated her blindness. She hated life and everyone in it except for her boyfriend. Even through her blind bitterness, his love for her touched her heart. One day she said to him, "If only I could see, I would marry you."
Time passed and one day she heard that someone had donated a pair of eyes for her. She had surgery to replace her blind eyes, and when she was healed and the bandages were removed, the first person she saw was her boyfriend. She was startled to discover that he too was blind. He had no eyes. She was repulsed by his blindness. She not only refused to keep her promise and marry him; she sent him away.
Sometime later he wrote her a note: "Take good care of your eyes. They are very special eyes. They were given to you with great hope and love. You see, before your eyes were yours, they were mine."
There's a far worse blindness than not seeing with physical eyes! It is blindness of the heart. The girl's bitterness blinded her heart so severely that even when she could see with her eyes, her heart remained hopelessly blind!
Life without sight would be very, very hard BUT life with a blind heart is far worse!
Modern medicine can cut and sew. Surgeons can even replace sightless eyes with sighted, donated ones. How incredible to be blind and then to see! But to physically see and have a blind heart is a very dark place to live!
This story is probably apocryphal but the truth found in the story is very real. There is a blindness far worse than the loss of sight. That's being blind of heart! God is in the business of restoring sight to blind hearts!
That's the very reason there's a new church gathering in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. We want blind hearts to see. We understand that only God can bring such restoration to blind hearts!
When Jesus walked the earth he healed many people of physical blindness. Jesus also healed even more people of "heart blindness." In fact, that's one reason some people hated Him so much. People with small minds and blind hearts hated Jesus because they feared being healed to the core of their hearts. They feared the pain and exposure of losing a blind heart, of seeing with their hearts! They feared the commitment of a "sighted" heart.
Hearts that see not only are compelled by the needs of people, but such hearts MUST do something for such need. That something often requires inconvenience and sacrifice. That something may even be misunderstood by others looking on.
When God restores hearts and removes "blindness," then we can see our world through God's eyes. That's the ONLY way past bitterness and selfishness to real love for the lonely and lost and rejected and needy hearts all around you and me!
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