He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Mark 8:24
It's a strange statement from a blind man that Jesus is healing. At first, the healing seems incomplete. The man opens his eyes and sees people walking around like trees. A moment later, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes and his sight was fully restored. The man saw everything clearly. It seems to me that sometimes we live out this story in reverse. We begin to see people as people. Slowly, we lose our vision. We lose our ability to see people as real people. A strange scar tissue develops over our vision: the scars of experience, hurt and disappointment. Only God's grace can wash over the lens. Perhaps we develop a certain cynical view of people. In one way or another, we cease to see with the vision that God gives. Early in his life, God helped Bonhoeffer to develop vision that would allow him to see what was taking place as Hitler's influence grew.
Every day I am getting to know people, at any rate their circumstances, and sometimes one is able to see through their stories into themselves..here I meet people as they are, far from the masquerade of the "Christian world"...people who feel homeless in both senses, and who begin to thaw when one speaks to them with kindness - real people.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It's a strange statement from a blind man that Jesus is healing. At first, the healing seems incomplete. The man opens his eyes and sees people walking around like trees. A moment later, Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes and his sight was fully restored. The man saw everything clearly. It seems to me that sometimes we live out this story in reverse. We begin to see people as people. Slowly, we lose our vision. We lose our ability to see people as real people. A strange scar tissue develops over our vision: the scars of experience, hurt and disappointment. Only God's grace can wash over the lens. Perhaps we develop a certain cynical view of people. In one way or another, we cease to see with the vision that God gives. Early in his life, God helped Bonhoeffer to develop vision that would allow him to see what was taking place as Hitler's influence grew.
Every day I am getting to know people, at any rate their circumstances, and sometimes one is able to see through their stories into themselves..here I meet people as they are, far from the masquerade of the "Christian world"...people who feel homeless in both senses, and who begin to thaw when one speaks to them with kindness - real people.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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