Today’s post is another story song by Don Francisco, this time taken from John 9:1-38.
In this long passage, Francisco again tells one of the Gospel stories from the point of view of the person who received a healing through the hands of Jesus. The man, blind from birth, does not go out of his way to find Jesus to seek a healing. He apparently had not even heard about Jesus and the miraculous things He had been doing around the country since the start of His ministry. In fact, from the text of the story in the Gospel of John, the healing was associated with Jesus teaching His disciples something about why disease was in the world.
The problem of death and disease in the world – now that is a concept large enough to write an entire book on the subject. In fact, that is exactly what has been done many times, by theologians and atheists alike. There are many questions associated with this problem, and it can be hard to get an answer acceptable to people. The explanation that I offer if this question is posed to me (“How can a good God allow disease and death in the world?”) is that the world as it was originally created was good and free of those problems. But with the fall of Adam in committing the first sin, his control of the world passed to Satan, the deceiver. The consequences of that sin were disease, death, and decay. People also became blind, so to speak, to the spiritual world around them. Direct connection with the Creator was broken, and we were left stumbling around, looking for our Father and a reason for our lives. And yes, we became subject to injury, diseases, and eventually death. None of these were ever intended to be our destiny.
And though we have forgiveness of our sins, and a restoration of fellowship with our Father God through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, our physical bodies still live in this fallen world, and are still subject to the consequences of Adam’s sin. Sometimes, as in Jesus explanation of the blind man’s situation, a disease or infirmity may be present in order for the glory of God to be show through a miraculous healing. Sometimes the glory of God is shown in the way in which that person lives with their problem. But in all situations, God’s goodness and glory can be found, if we just look for it.
I have never yet been in a situation where I have had to personally deal with a serious illness or injury. And, being human, I don’t very much want to have to experience such a thing. But I have set my mind to be prepared to be an example of faith, hope, and love to those around me should such a situation ever arise. And my desire would be not that others would say about me, “Oh, what a nice guy! What a strong character!”, but rather, “Look what God has done for him!” And whether I received a healing or did not, I would want to follow the example of the blind man in this story, and fall at Jesus’ feet and worship Him, not for what I want or hope He would do for me, but for who He is.
Enough of my words. From Don Francisco’s 1981 album The Traveler, here is the song Since I Met Him.
Now it’s hard to describe what my life use to be
To someone who’s always been able to see.
You know I wasn’t unhappy or bitter that way,
But everything’s changed since I met Him that day.I was down by the corner, just passin’ the time,
Sitting in sunlight and feelin’ it shine,
When the sounds of a crowd began to grow in my ear,
So I waited and listened as I heard them draw near.Then a man stepped up to me and He spat on the ground,
Put the mud on my eyes and then smeared it around,
Sent me off to Siloam to wash off the clay,
And I opened my eyes and I looked at the day!And I have no idea how He did it;
I just know what happened to me.
Yesterday I was in darkness –
But since I met Him I can see!When the Pharisees heard it they put me on trial;
Even called in my parents and grilled them a while.
And when at the end, I defended the man
Who had opened my eyes, all the trouble began.I said, “Ever since the beginning of time
No one’s opened the eyes of someone born blind
This man’s sent from God, it just can’t be denied!”
And they cursed me and grabbed me, and threw me outside.I really don’t know how He found me,
I just know He was talking to me.
It was easy to tell by the sound of His voice
He was the reason I see.And as soon as He spoke to me I couldn’t hide
The emotion that welled up from deep down inside
And combined with the dreams that He’d made to come true;
To kneel there and worship was all I could do!And I called Him my Lord and Messiah
For everything He’d done for me.
Yesterday I was in darkness,
But since I met Him I can see!And I call Him my Lord and my Savior
For everything He’s done for me.
Yesterday I was in darkness,
But since I met Him,
Since I met Him,
Since I met Him I can see!Since I met Him (Messiah!)
Since I met Him (Messiah!)
Since I met Him I can see!
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You can purchase this music
from the artist’s web site here. |
Any parent who has had a child who was gravely ill will tell you how very difficult it is to handle. There is a major feeling of helplessness to have a child that is sick, and who begs you to make him or her better. It is bad enough to have this happen if you live where there is modern medical care available; at least in those circumstances, you have a little assurance that a solution will be found. But imagine how difficult it would be with no healthcare available beyond folk remedies, and your child is sick with a fever, and continues to get more and more ill. What can you do? How do you handle it??
If you wanted to learn as much as possible about what a brilliant scientist knew, you would read what he had written. If you wanted to know how he did his work, you might visit him in his lab and watch him. But if you wanted to know him on a very personal level, you would try to spend time with him regularly, seeing how he acted, made his decisions, and lived his life. Doing this would make it possible to even predict what that scientist might do or say under certain circumstances. Being close to him on a regular basis is what would make this possible. 
