“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” (John 9:36)
Expanded Passage: John 9:35-41
About twenty years ago, I had an accident that temporarily blinded me in my right eye. The impact of the injury meant that my eyeball was full of blood, and as the blood drained, either my sight would return, or it wouldn’t. There was nothing to do but wait. After a couple days, I began to discern light, then shapes; eventually, my sight was fully restored save for a lingering cataract. I was so thankful. While I would not have lost my sight completely, I would have had no depth perception and not much peripheral vision. But God healed me.
This man is similarly thankful. When he meets Jesus, Jesus asks him if he believes in the Son of Man. He doesn’t know who Jesus is talking about, so he simply says, “Whoever that is, I’ll believe in him. I’ll believe in anyone you tell me to—because I am so thankful that you healed me.”
What gifts are you thankful for? Sometimes we lose track of how we have been healed or saved. We forget how our lives hung in the balance until we were rescued. When we stay in touch with that feeling and with the gratitude that comes from knowing Jesus, then we are ready to follow wherever he leads, ready to worship him when he appears.
Practice gratitude for an important moment of healing and worship.
J. Michael Jordan is associate professor of theology at Houghton University, and the author of Worship in an Age of Anxiety (IVP, 2024).
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
