We know that there’s much more going on in life than we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears.  All that behind the scenes stuff.  Don’t you wonder what’s really said in the Oval Office?  Or the back rooms of Congress?  Or the side halls of 10 Downing Street?  Let alone the Lodge at Canberra for our dear friends the Littler’s in Australia?

What goes on behind the scenes for the blind man in John 9?  The story elements are straightforward and well-known.  Jesus spits on the ground and then applies this mud to sightless eyes.  Why not a direct and immediate healing?  He’s done it before and will after.  What gives?

This reminds me of Kuda Bux, the early TV Hindu mystic, who applies soft dough balls to both eyes, then is blindfolded, yet can see clearly.  But, unlike the TV showman, this is no fake trick by Jesus.  For our Lord makes it beyond doubt that this man is blind.  In no way can he see through this muck covering his eyes.

What happens to this fellow after his healing?  Behind the scenes he’s confronted by a rabble of religious leaders ready to blow a gasket his way.  They’re in his face.  What he now sees is terrifying, unnerving, unsettling and discombobulating.  As a reward for gaining his eyesight, he’s booted out of the Temple!  Church membership nixed.  No longer allowed to use the disabled parking spot next to the pastor.  His service dog sent to the pound.  Has he gained more than he’s lost?  Time will tell.

It’s at the end of chapter 9 where something else happens behind the scenes.  John 9:35–‘Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him…’  Searching high and low, Jesus finds this man, now an outcast.  Truly never out of His sight.  Jesus searches for His own until their found.

That’s what He’s done for me.  Found me.  I can see that now.  All those years ago, when I heard on a radio program that Jesus loved me.  What?  Cared about me?  He does?  Yes, He was knocking at the door of my heart.  I pushed that door wide open only to discover that He was doing the same toward me, but with more tender loving strength.

He seeks His own.  Behind the scenes.  Never giving up.  Looking for you and me.  Until we’re found…and forever His!

Thank you, Jesus, for seeking and finding me.  I love you.  Amen.