Hope’s Blindness
Ephesians 1:18 KJV
(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
There is this direct relationship between sight and hope. Where there is blindness to the provision and possibilities in Christ there can be no hope, no motivation, and no faith. On the other hand, where enlightenment has come and sight has been given, where eyes have been exposed to the greatness of kingdom life, there is another kind of blindness that is experienced- blindness to any images of defeat, failure or discouragement. It’s like one can only be blind to one set of images at a time- either Christ life and hope or death and hopelessness.
Once there was a child who became enamored with catching a butterfly so much so that he followed it all the way across the big field next to his house. Every time he would almost get close enough to touch it, the butterfly would fly off a little further. With his focus completely on his prize, the beautiful butterfly, he didn’t realize the path down which he was led became a ledge along a cliff that descended many feet to the ravine below. Though his position was precarious, as long as his focus remained on the butterfly he was blind to his position and how near he might be to a fall. As he kept pursuing it he was eventually led back to safety. If at any time, though, he had become impressed with the danger that was so near, he might have become blind to the image that would lead him out of the danger. Blindness to the butterfly would have brought fear and possible disaster, while blindness to his surroundings was kept by his focus on the prize and its path to safety.
There is vision for us in the presence of our Lord today that will cause us to become blind to anything that might appear to be impending doom. Hope will overwhelm defeat and failure as pursuit of our Prize is the focus. The images of defeat will be lost in hope’s light
