new church life: september/october 2017
persevered and sight was restored in one eye. The amazing thing though is that
even though his sight in that eye was considered perfect, he still did not see
clearly. He had trouble distinguishing faces, for instance, or between multiple
items such as goods on a supermarket shelf.
What the doctors discovered is that even though his eye was restored
the portion of his brain that controls sight had lost the training we acquire
unconsciously as infants in defining and distinguishing what we see. An
example given is that all sheep look alike to us but to a shepherd who has
trained his brain with them, each has its own distinctive face. The only thing
I could relate this to is hearing a totally foreign language that sounds like
gibberish without knowing – without training the brain – where one word
stops and another begins.
This is all an illustration of the marvel of the Lord’s creation – how the
eye and the brain function together, through intricate fibers and receptacles
we still don’t fully understand – and we just take for granted how seamlessly
it all works.
Well, May is adapting to a newly sighted but still limited world, and it
is a heroic, inspiring story. But I was left disappointed that throughout all
the drama of some 300 pages there is never a mention of God or prayer. You
would think anyone facing such a momentous risk-reward decision would
instinctively pray. You would think he would gain some appreciation for the
way God works in our lives – right down to the incredible intricacy of our
bodies. But this spiritual aspect was missing from his story.
The happy note is that Mike May was blind and now he sees. The sadness
is that he still is missing something. How much more could he see if he “cured”
his spiritual blindness as well?
(BMH)
the heavens declare
What was it about the total solar eclipse traversing the continental United
States on August 21 that mesmerized millions of people with awe and wonder?
Clearly something majestic and celestial was going on here – not just a
random phenomenon of science. For the sun and the moon to align just so that
the sun was blotted out for several minutes was a cosmic illustration that this
was something far grander and more meaningful than a meteor shower or the
Northern Lights. Like the first “earthrise” photo from the Apollo 8 mission in
1968 this gave us all a sense that we are part of something bigger and grander
than our small place on earth.
What moved people to tears – and unrestrained whoops of joy? Even
teenagers looked up from their screens and felt an unfamiliar awe that perhaps
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