Hello, and welcome to another sunday of my 2026 blessings journey. Participating with me in this are:
First let me be very clear. I hate being blind. I absolutely, positively, unequivocally hate it! This image shows just 1 of the reasons why. For anyone who can’t see it, it shows a person searching on the floor for a lost object that’s just out of reach. I feel as though I spend more time in my life searching for things I can use than I do anything else. Touch screens are out. Things that indicate their status by color only are also out. Just about everything takes longer to do, and even then you’re not sure it’s done right. In case you have any doubts, try closing your eyes and vacuuming the floor. How’d you do? A friend once called and, when I answered, asked me what I was doing. I told him I was cleaning the house. He asked me if it looked like a blindy cleaned it. The only thing I could think to say was that I hoped it looked like *somebody* cleaned it.
Being blind also makes participating in so many activities difficult, or at least not very much fun. Think family game nights, trips to the zoo or aquarium, holiday light shows/fireworks, etc.
So having said all that, why do I say that blindness is a blessing?
Isaiah 42:16
“I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.”
Because, for all the frustrations blindness engenders, I think we’re also given a little bit of special attention by the Great Father. I’ve often heard that God protects kids and fools. I add blind folks as well. I also think it gives me a little more tolerance for others’ weaknesses than I might otherwise have. My family members might disagree, you understand, but I do think it does. And I think it makes it more likely that I look to God for help than I would if I could see.
So, very begrudgingly, I count being blind as a blessing. And I pray I can serve God even better without eyesight than I could have done with it. Because, after all, when all is said and done, all of us walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Cor 5:7