By Dana Hendershot
Originally posted April 13, 2011, at Kaleidoscope Faith. Republished with permission of the author.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:3).
My only encounter with braille is on elevators. I always notice the dots below the numbers that we press to choose which floor. Because I haven’t grown up around someone born blind, there are a lot of things I’ve never thought about.
I was out to eat with Tyler (who was born blind) and Bethani the other day and realized I have never wondered until today if menus come in braille.
I am often blind to things until I have a reason or insight to see.
Braille is a worldwide system used by people who are blind or visually impaired for reading and writing. It was created by Louis Braille.
Louis was not born blind. He was blinded by an accident that happened while he was young. According to Wikipedia, “At age three, he scratched his right eye while making holes in a piece of leather with a pruning knife that was too heavy for him.
“There was nothing anyone could do except patch and bind the affected eye. The wound became severely infected and spread to his left eye causing his blindness.”
One of the empowering forces behind Louis’ creating a system of raised dots (made by the same tool that blinded him) was that he wanted to read the Bible.
As a matter of fact, most of the contracted words in braille are the most common words found in the Bible.
Here is a man who was blinded after birth, and he brought the word of God to all the visually impaired people who followed. Talk about a man through whom God worked miracles.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
Sometimes the things we claim hold us back are the very things that guide us to follow God’s call.
Find a link to Dana Hendershot’s blog Kaleidoscope Faith at Lutheran Blogs.
