It’s the year 30 A.D. in Galilee. You wake up to the noise of the town around you, but all you can see is darkness. You are immediately reminded that you became blind several years ago. Now, you have no family or friends to take care of you. You live on the streets, begging for food by the roadside. Everyday you hear the sound of 1,000 footsteps pass you by, but no one ever stops to care.

Life wasn’t always like this for you. You remember the simple joys of sight, like looking someone in the eye or seeing a sunset. But all of these experiences are just memories now. Those days are long gone.

To top it all off, your sin must have made you this way. At least, that’s what those around you believe and tell you when they walk by. People shout at you and call you a “sinner.” You constantly question what you must have done to deserve this. Whatever it was, you reason that it must have been as unforgivable as your blindness is incurable.

One day you hear the talk of the town. Some man named Jesus from the small town of Nazareth had gained a following. You hear that he is a great teacher but that he is also going around healing people.

“Surely, he wouldn’t come around here,” you say to yourself. “And even if he did, he would never heal me of all people!”

But still you hold out a little hope every morning. Perhaps Jesus will pass through town and you can hear him teach from a distance. That would be amazing. Maybe you could risk getting close to him. After all, what do you have to lose?

Your next day begins like the many before it. You sit by the road and beg for help. When all of the sudden, you begin to hear more footsteps. There is a large crowd walking by. You keep asking  them what’s going on, but everyone ignores you. Until finally someone tells you:

“Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

Your mind and heart immediately start to race. “This could be my only chance,” you say to yourself. You believe that Jesus can heal you. So you do what you always have done: you beg.

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

The people in front you tell you to keep quiet, but you don’t listen. Instead, you get louder and louder.

“Son of David, have mercy on me!”

To your surprise, the crowd gets silent for a second. They tell you that Jesus is calling for you. He has heard your cries! You throw off your cloak and stumble your way to him. As you draw near, the voice of Jesus meets you with a simple question:

“What do you want me to do for you?”

You know what you want. You haven’t stopped thinking about it since you first heard about Jesus.

“Lord, let me recover my sight.”

You pause and wait for his response. Little did you know that the next words to come out of Jesus’ mouth would be the most important words you would ever hear and never forget.

“Your faith has made you well.”

The world of color you once knew comes into focus. You can finally see again!  As breathtaking as the colors around you are, there is one thing that you want to see more: the face of Jesus. When you finally see him, you can’t help but fall down and worship him. What others have said about Jesus is true: he is the Son of God!

You notice that the people around you are just as amazed as you are. So they join you in praising God. From this day forward, you are not your own.

Jesus is your Lord, so you vow to follow him all the days of your life.

And not a day goes by without you sharing your miraculous story with anyone who will listen.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).