[Monday's Devotional] - Misconceptions

Are we missing out on what God wants for us?  Do we live, as many did when Jesus walked this earth all those years ago, with misconceptions about Him?

Take for example the story written in John 9: one of the funniest stories in the whole bible! Read it and we cannot help but be struck by the humour in it.  A miracle had been done on the blind man: but watch those who opposed Jesus trying to wriggle round the evidence.  'It can't be him', they say, trying to get his parents to disown him.  The parents, obviously scared, tell them "Ask him, he is of age".  When asked to tell his story yet again the healed man exclaims, "Why, do you want to be his disciples too?" to which the Pharisees reply "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!"

Let us smile and enjoy the silliness of those 'church leaders', and perhaps smile at ourselves when we take ourselves too seriously.  Sometimes a laugh at ourselves may just defuse a situation and enable us to restore good relationships.  Maybe God gave us humour for that reason – as well as to enjoy the good things of life!

But as you read the story, did you also notice the difference in the attitude of Jesus towards the man born blind compared with those of the disciples, the people around and the Pharisees?  All except Jesus assumed that the blind man's disability was something that disadvantaged him in ways that were not related to his blindness.  'Did he sin, or was it his parents?' ask the disciples. After being healed the bystanders ask 'Surely this can't be the same man?'  The Pharisees were very clear: he was 'steeped in sin at birth'.

Jesus never thought of him that way: the blind man was there to show the work of God!  Do we see people in His way?  That woman in the wheelchair is there to show the work of God; that old man in the hospital bed is there to show the work of God?  That poor man trying to sell a magazine in the street – there to show the work of God?

Or do we too have misconceptions about those we see during our day?

Alan Cartwright

Read the Bible in a year:  Proverbs 12:8-17, Ruth 1:1-2:23, John 9:1-34