Lord, I Want to See

Most of us are not physically blind, but we all suffer from at least some degree of spiritual blindness. And one of the most common types of spiritual blindness is not being able (or willing) to see the good in other people. Striving to open our hearts and minds to see the good in every other human being is an important first step, but it’s generally not enough. We need some help. Divine help. We need God’s help to love in the deepest sense of the word. We need God’s help to love as God loves. We need God to instill the divine love in us, to infuse us with the divine love, so that we can then love others with the divine love. And being able to love others as God loves them requires first and foremost that we be able to find and focus upon the good in each and every person.

We all need to pray on a regular basis for that grace, especially with regard to the most difficult people and the most difficult situations in our lives. We need to pray for God to transform our way of looking at, and thinking about, other people. We need to pray for a God’s-eye view, so to speak. We need to pray to be able to see with the eyes of Christ, who during his earthly life always saw the potential for good in people even when others could not. We need to pray for our hearts and minds to be transformed into the heart and mind of Christ. We all need to join with the blind beggar who repeatedly asked Jesus to help him as Jesus was passing by him on his way to Jericho. Touched by the man’s persistence, Jesus stopped and asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man immediately replied, “Lord, I want to see” (Luke 18:41; NIV). As people who are so often blind, whether willfully or inadvertently, to the good in others, let us join in the blind man’s entreaty: Lord, help us to see!

Copyright 2024 Rick Clements

* This article is based on an excerpt from Rick’s latest book, The Book of Love: Brief Meditations.

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash