Work While It Is Day

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” John 9:1-12

There was an old joke in my family. When the lights would go out during a storm, like the ones we've been having of late, we would raise our hands in the air. Inevitably, the lights would come back on. We would all laugh at one of my father's favorite puns, which he adored. He loved to play with words and his puns would make us groan. He was also a fan of hard work, and we kids had little time for rest and leisure if my Dad had a project in mind. We were expected to work while the sun was shining knowing a time would come when we had to sit it out.

Jesus heals a blind man, a man who had spent his life begging because there was no other work for him. Jesus was sent by God to heal him and to heal the world, to bind up the broken, to set prisoners free, and he took his job seriously despite all the back wash from angry religious leaders. He lso had the man participate in his own healing by washing in the pool. There is good work for each of us to do, and as followers of Christ, we are invited to work when we can, constantly serving others and asking how we can be agents of healing and renewal.

I ask God today to help me be ready at all times to lean in and help. May the Divine inspire and renew us so that we can each do our part for the uplifting and renewal of our world. May we carry the burdens of others in the sunlight, knowing that God will bring healing and light, freedom and strength to those in need. May our words and actions glorify God who sees in the light and darkness, and into the depths of our hearts.