What a difference a day makes!  Friday we awoke to dense fog that ended in a blinding snowstorm.  But yesterday came back the glorious warm sunshine, making us forget that awful Friday commute that took hours instead of minutes.  In just 24 hours another blizzard came and vanished.  In the 17 years I've lived in Colorado, the weather never ceases to amaze and often frustrate me.  As they say, "If you don't like the weather here, just wait a few hours."  At times during our Friday snowstorm we could barely see the road.  And the darker it got, the more important it was to be able to see where you were going.

          In 1987, journalist and author Lee Strobel visited India.  One night, he and his group needed to travel from one rural village to another.  There were no street lights or well-marked roads.  Their guide was a young Indian man who carried only a small lantern.  Strobel became impatient with the group's slow pace, so he decided to step out of the lighted path and walk on ahead.  But as soon as he did, he tumbled down a steep embankment into a dry river bed.  He didn't know it was there, but his guide did.  Suddenly, he said, the verse in Psalm 119 made a lot more sense, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

          With all there is to see in this big, wide, wonderful world we live in, we don't always see very well.  Most of us need eyeglasses or contact lenses.  We see to read millions of books or watch thousands of movies.  We see hundreds of people each day and have dozens of opportunities to visit with them.  But we don't always see what's in front of us.  We sometimes can't see clearly the one person we should watch the most - that person staring back at us in the mirror.  Who is she?  What's that in his heart?  Does she trust in Jesus?  Does he believe in God or in himself?  We all are a bit blind, especially when it comes to seeing ourselves as we really are.

          Last week I saw a woman crossing the street with a white cane.  She had to wait until it was quiet before she crossed.  Once she heard the traffic had stopped, she stepped out in faith to cross a street and cars she could not see.  How does a blind woman see herself?  Does she also struggle with vanity, just like others who primp and dress up and try to create "the look?"

          One day as He was travelling and teaching, Jesus met a man born blind.  That wasn't surprising.  There was a lot of physical blindness in His day.  A simple infection was enough to take away a man's sight forever.  And some of their blindness wasn't because of sightlessness, but because they had terrible vision.  Glasses, you know, are only 300 years old.  I often wonder what people did back then when they saw as poorly as I do without glasses.

          The Disciples saw the blind man and became curious.  "Why was he born blind?  What it his fault or his parents'?"  We'd all like to know the reasons why bad things happen to people.  We all like to hear a good story.  But Jesus said, "Neither - this one's to show you what only God can do."  That's what we need a lot of - good examples of only what God can do.  Faith is at its best when it looks for a "God miracle."  It takes no faith to expect a "human miracle."  But expecting something only God can do - now that's a real act of faith.

          Jesus then told them, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."  It's easy to keep our eyes focused only on ourselves, our troubles, our problems.  But then why not?  It's we who have a family to care for.  It's we who have to deal with our poor health or our unemployment or our bad relationship.  And the disciples had all those things to deal with, too.  But at least they had the "Light of the World" with them.  But we modern disciples do, too.  He's with us right now...

          Jesus gave them a hint of relief in saying the night is coming so they can rest from their labors, their stiff arms and sore backs.  We can only work during the day, and then we must rest.  Some of us remodelling the shed are learning our physical limitations, and sometimes when we over-reach our abilities.  But when the effort is for something lasting, the sore muscles and tired legs are worth it.  I am finding this remodelling project is doing many good things for our members and I'm trying to figure out how to keep the fellowship going when the project is done.  Hey guys, raise your hands if you want to keep doing this every Saturday.  (I didn't think so...)

          But God knows our needs and makes sure we are cared for.  A young man named Jeff lived in Spokane, WA, and was the Deli Manager for a grocery store in the small town of Colfax, about 50 miles from Spokane.  His days started very early with his leaving for work around 3:00 AM.  The stretch of highway between Spokane and Colfax is wheat field country, with only a few farmhouses here and there.  It's pretty bleak at night.

          Recently, Jeff was making the familiar trip along the empty highway when his car dashboard lights went out.  He carefully continued to his destination and began to work on fixing the problem.  The dashboard lights finally came back on and he carried on with his daily routine.  The next morning the electrical problem was worse - his headlights went out!  He slammed on his brakes as he faced a wall of total darkness that moonless night.  Frustration set in as he found himself sitting in the middle of a dark highway with no lights to warn another car he was there.

          Jeff tried to find out what the problem was, and frantically pushed every button on the dash.  Suddenly, the flashers began to beat their steady rhythm and he sighed with relief.  At least others wouldn't run into him now.  Then he noticed he could see the center line with the aid of the flashers if he drove five to ten miles an hour.  All out of options, he crept toward Colfax at a snails pace -- it was all he had left to do.

          After a few slow miles a car's headlights appeared in his rear view mirror.  The car went around Jeff, but after pulling back in front of him it continued up the highway a short distance then stopped and waited for Jeff to catch up.  Once He was behind the car, the driver put on his high beams and continued toward Colfax with Jeff able to see well enough to follow.  At the edge of Colfax, where the street lights were bright, the driver turned and drove away.  Jeff continued on to work using the street lights, but never knowing the driver of the other car, for words were never spoken and in the darkness he couldn't see who it was.  But it didn't matter if the driver was a man or woman, young or old, earth born or Heaven sent.  The driver was an "angel of light" to Jeff that morning.

          Who is your angel of light?  God sends us people to get us through tough circumstances.  It could be a friendly nurse or a good neighbor or a fellow Christian.  And sometimes He just surprises us with the good way things turn out.  God opens our eyes!

          William Cowper lived during the 1700's in England.  Though a poet and hymn writer, he suffered fits of melancholy and frequent attacks of spiritual despair which even led to two suicide attempts.  On one of those occasions during a time of dark night of his soul, he set out walking from his home in London with the intention of jumping into the Thames River to drown himself.  He got hopelessly lost in the London night fog and wandered blindly for some time.  Eventually, lost and confused, he saw a light and walked towards a house to get out of the fog.  And the home he walked into?  It was his own.  He'd wandered blindly, but was never more than a few blocks from home.

          That night he sat down and penned the words of the beloved hymn:  "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;  He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.  Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;  The clouds ye so much dread  Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head."

          If you are going through a dark night of the soul right now and feel that God is far away, rest assured He is standing with you in the shadows.  And since God knows every sparrow that falls, He certainly knows all about you and cares for you like no other.

          But, you see, we can know this with our heads, and not know it with our hearts.  Like Cowper, Christians are not immune from bad times, even from despair.  I believe that every Sunday morning there are a few people sitting and listening who are just inches away from despair.  It creeps into our lives without our knowing it and suddenly we are angry, sullen or panicky.  When the fog creeps in to confuse you, remember, God is there to guide us through.  God opens our eyes!

          He is Christ our Savior, the "rescuer," Jesus of Nazareth, the Light of the World.  He is our lifeline when all others fail us.  He raises us up when we fall and forgives us when we fail.  Daily He reaches down into our world and rescues us from drowning in our self-made pools of doubt and dread.  He is the Lamp to our feet, the Light of the World to show us the way on the path of life.

          One warm Sunday morning a humming bird flew through an open door into a restaurant and couldn't find its way out.  It flew to the highest window and frantically tried escaping through the glass.  The more it tried and failed, the harder it worked to do the same thing over and over.  Little did it realize the way of escape lay only a few feet below it, through the open door.  It could see quite well where it wanted to go, but it was trapped by its own blindness to the way of escape.

          Finally, one of the staff climbed a ladder, trapped the bird with a box and set it free.  The patrons all applauded its rescue.  But how many people -- some there that day, or even some of us here -- are struggling in a vain attempt to save ourselves spiritually, and are trapped by our own blindness to the way of escape God has provided us in Jesus?  At times are we not all that "lost" bird in a restaurant, banging into the glass, unable to get where we want to go?

          Dear friends, God opens our eyes!  Thanks be to God for His wondrous love in saving us.  Because of God's love, no longer do we have to go around banging our heads into the wall of frustration.  Because of Christ's forgiveness, no longer do we have to see a failure staring back at us in the mirror.  Praise God for opening our eyes to see His love and our place in heaven.  Amen

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.