Seeing Through Water

I’ve never been a swimmer, but I love the water. Born and raised mostly in Colorado, mountain lakes and streams are my first love. I also like crashing ocean waves on rocky shores, gentle lapping fingers on sandy beaches, deep Minnesota fishing lakes, warm Texas recreation lakes and neighborhood waterfallls.

For the faith-filled, water is a many-faceted symbol: it destroyed the earth in the flood of Noah, parted to let the Israelites escape slavery, flowed from a stone when the desert wanderers were thirsty.  In the New Testament, Jesus asked John to baptize him in the Jordan river, and in that moment the Father proclaimed him Beloved Son. After that moment in the river, the world was forever changed as the Beloved Son began the work of the Father. Water became wine at his command. He calmed the storm, invited Peter to walk on water with him, opened the ears of a deaf man with spittle, offered himself as the Water of Life to the Samaritan woman, and invited the man born blind to wash the mud from his eyes in the Pool of Siloam:

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 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, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). The he went and washed and came back able to see.  John 9:1-7 (NRSV)

A little dirt, a little spittle, a little faith, a little cleansing in the Pool of Siloam, and a blind man sees. What agonies led up to that day for the man reduced to begging his whole life? What shame had his parents lived under since their son was born? What did Jesus see that no one else did? What stories lie on the bottom of the Pool of Siloam?

Like the man born blind, our lives have been shaped and changed by moments big and small. When we allow the intimate touch of God to open our eyes and wash our hearts clean, miracles happen. The man born blind can see. What is your story?