And I will lead the blind
in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do,
and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16
I read this verse a couple of days ago and wondered who the blind were that the prophet was speaking about. John Calvin describes the blind this way:
“those whose affairs are so difficult, and intricate, and disordered, that they know not to what hand to turn, or in what direction to flee, and, in short, who see no means of escape, but deep gulfs on every hand….when our affairs are painful and distressing, and especially when they hold out no hope of relief, but threaten destruction to us, and are covered with deep and melancholy darkness, we are blinded.”
I feel this to the tips of my toes. I can’t see an inch in front of me. I think I am about to see a light and an other thing happens to make the darkness seem deeper. I reach out in the dark for my Father’s hand and I feel the wound in the
hand of the Christ who was wounded for me. Suddenly I see just a little light. Light for the next moment so I can see the next step. Moment after moment it comes. Slowly, very slowly I go, steady on. The ground that looks rocky, suddenly becomes flat as I put my foot down. “I do not forsake you!” is whispered in my ear as I go on. It is repeated over and over and over until someday I come to the land of no more night and gaze into the face of the One who has held my hand all the time.