In 1991, two operations restored Shirl Jennings' sight after 40 years of blindness. His family and friends reacted with absolute euphoria, but the next day Shirl's fiance recorded in her diary that he was "trying to adjust to being sighted . . . . Not able to trust vision yet. . . . Like [a] baby just learning to see, everything new, exciting, scary, unsure of what seeing means."

Although Shirl knew people and objects through his other senses, he could not recognize them by sight. People expected him to be fully adjusted immediately, but he was trying to figure out what everything was.

Isn't it much the same for us when we receive God's gift of salvation?

After Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus, the restoration of his physical sight became a powerful metaphor for the new spiritual sight he received from the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 9:3-17). We don't know much about Paul's 3 years in Arabia following his conversion (Galatians 1:15-18), except that it must have been a period of profound relearning about life and God.

It takes time to grow in our relationship with Christ, and to see with the new spiritual eyes He has given us. So let's be patient with each other, and especially with every new Christian we meet along our journey of joyful discovery.  —DCM  — David C. McCasland