My wife’s father was colorblind. It’s not exactly a rare condition in men. About one in twelve men and one in two-hundred women have some form of colorblindness. My wife tells stories of helping her father picking out clothes (apparently matching socks were a problem). And at least once he picked out a piece of furniture and was later asked why we would pick a color like he did.
Nolan Nitta is colorblind. He had trouble picking out fresh vegetables at the grocery store because he couldn’t see where the blemishes were. He had to rely on the position of the traffic lights rather than their color. When we was young his parents let him pick out whatever color he wanted for parts of the house. He chose what he thought was tan. Turns out the actual color was a mint green. But then Don McPherson accidentally discovered a way for Nolan to see more colors. He was working on eye protection for scientists who used lasers. His friend tried on McPherson’s glasses and noticed an orange cone in a grassy field. His friend was red-green colorblind and had not been able to tell the cone’s color apart from the grass.
McPherson got a grant in the year 2000 and got to work perfecting the technology. Now you can buy colorblind correcting glasses from the Enchroma company. Imagine how it must feel for someone to try on these glasses for the first time and see colors they have not seen before. This happened to Nitta not long ago. His family bought him the glasses and had him put them on for the first time at the San Diego Zoo (lot of colors there). Nitta said the experience was overwhelming. He said he never really knew what he was missing until he saw it.
Now imagine being able to see for the first time. It happened to Brent Chapman in North Vancouver Canada. He lost his eyesight at age 13. When he was 34 he underwent a rare “tooth-in-eye” procedure on his right eye. This is a real thing (I looked it up). The patient’s tooth is pulled and flattened and tiny hole is drilled in the center of it. A lens is fitted over the hole and the tooth is placed at the front of the eye. When Chapman had this done he was immediately able to see his hands moving in front of his face, and he settled on 20/30 vision when he fully healed from the procedure.
Chapman was quoted as saying “Vision comes back, and it’s a whole new world.”
Imagine how that must feel. What would you do? Now what would you do if someone all of a sudden started to see and there was no scientific reason? You might be skeptical. You might question it.
John 9:1-9
9 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ 3 Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’ 9 Some were saying, ‘It is he.’ Others were saying, ‘No, but it is someone like him.’ He kept saying, ‘I am the man.’ 10 But they kept asking him, ‘Then how were your eyes opened?’ 11 He answered, ‘The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, “Go to Siloam and wash.” Then I went and washed and received my sight.’ 12 They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know.’
How do you think this miracle was received? By the man himself? Extremely well. By the others around him? Not well at all. In fact he later gets interrogated.
8 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, ‘Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?’ 20 His parents answered, ‘We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.’ 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, ‘He is of age; ask him.’
There is a division between those who are open to what Christ is doing and those who are content in their own self-righteousness. Are we open to what Jesus is doing? Are we content in our own self-righteousness?
Who is blind in this story? Who can see?
And finally this question: When we become open to what God is doing in the world it would be like the people who put on the special glasses for the first time, wouldn’t it? Look that up. You can easily find videos out there where colorblind people put on these glasses for the first time. Their reaction may make you cry just watching it. That same emotion will come from others when we learn to spiritually “see” for the first time.
God Bless,