Yet another day…
Knowing not whether the sky was still blue and the day was still bright, I sat there waiting for the low-rolling coins tossed towards me from the high-minded pedestrians strolling and striding at a higher and lower pace. It is the tinkling of those coins as they roll toward me that cause the twinkling in my otherwise useless eyes.
But today…no coins, just the time is rolling. I called, I cried, I screamed. But, no one seems to be listening.
It is then that I heard a crowd drawing near from the far. What a noisy crowd! In their shouts and cheers, murmurs and whispers I could hear one name and that was Jesus. I have heard that name before… Yes, I had felt the same name in my pains and pathos, hopes and aspirations too? I was sure that he could change the trajectory of my stalemate life and deadlocked dreams. I waited for the crowd to come near me.
As the crowd reached me I heard someone asking, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Oh! How senselessly cruel and insensitive was that question! I just hoped that the question was intended not towards me.
The discussion that followed, let me say, I didn’t understand a word of it.
And then, I could feel someone touching my eyes with some paste. Oh! What a consoling touch! Then I didn’t understand what it was, but later someone told me that it was not any paste, rather mud with saliva spread upon my eyes by my Lord.
Then he asked me to go to Siloam and wash my eyes. Though my mind couldn’t comprehend the sense of the command, I just obeyed.
I went to the bank of calm Siloam, arched my back and bent on my knees, dipped my palm into the icy cold water of Siloam, gathered a scoop of water and raised it to my face...eyes and washed softly away that salivaic mud from my eyes. I could feel the scintillating sparks running through my veins as I made each move. And with roaring waves in my mind I opened my eyes…and then…and then…in the smiling tranquil ripples of Siloam, I saw not the face that launched ten thousand ships, not the nose that changed the course of Rome, not the eyes that charmed the kings and emperors…but the reflection of my own face…my own life.
I then simply could not wait there. I just ran to Him…my Lord, Jesus.
And I shouted, I CAN SEE. I CAN SEE.
But, he stood as tranquil as Siloam and asked tenderly, “What did you see, my son?”
I said, “Me, My face.”
He then smiled, “Yes, now that you have seen yourself, you are healed.”
