Deaf and Blind

Helen Keller © by Arabani

My family and I like to go to family night at Chick-Fil-A, and even though we do not go weekly or even monthly, more over we go randomly, we go often enough to know what books are in the kids meals there.  Currently the books at our CFA are about famous people in history.  At one of our trips, we got one about Helen Keller.  Later in the week, we were riding around in the van going to grab some lunch, and Grandmaw was riding with us.  She rode shotgun, Daniel drove, and I rode in the back with the kids.  The kids insisted that Grandmaw read this book while we rode around from destination to destination.  So I listened from the back of the van about Helen Keller.  I am sure you know the story of Helen Keller.  When she was little, she got sick and the effects of her illness left her both deaf and blind.  Growing up, her story was my sister’s favorite story, and I also enjoyed it as well.  Listening from the back seat, I heard as a child hears and thought as an adult does, giving the story new life.

Close your eyes and imagine with me walking around in total darkness all the time.  Not only that, but you cannot hear anything in the darkness either.  I’ve always wondered what that would be like.  How would you learn?  How would you know?  Wouldn’t you be lonely?

I listened to Grandmaw read the story and tell about Annie Sullivan grabbing Helen’s hand and tracing into it numerous times the word for something she was touching to teach her what it was.  Often Helen would have fits and tantrums because she was angry for her inability and because she did not understand.  Anne did not let Helen’s fits thwart her plans to teach Helen.  She persevered and stayed strong to the task at hand.  I imagine she was driven by an incomparable and deep love.  At one point, Helen began to understand as she stood at a water pump.  The world changed for her that day.  She stopped having tantrums and began to seek out more knowledge and submitted to the learning and the challenges that were required of her.  She ended up rising above her limitations and became an advocate for others with disabilities.

As I was listening to the story, I realized you and I may either be or have been Helen Keller in a figurative sense of course.  We walk around deaf and blind, unable to see or the hear what the Savior wants us to understand, all the while we have outrageous temper tantrums while He works.  Have you ever noticed how often Jesus says ” let them have eyes to see and ears to hear”?  Numerous times he draws this picture.  Relentlessly He pursues us until we are given vision.  Just like Helen, our vision may not be through our eyes, but through our hearts.  And what is to become of us when we are given eyes to see and ears to hear?  We must become like Anne Sullivan pursuing the deaf and blind relentlessly until they too understand.

Today there are some things I am both deaf and blind about, that I do not even know what they are.  Yet, I have been given vision and hearing and some understanding about Christ and His grace.  I will take what sight I’ve been given and use it to open more eyes – to let the praises ring.  Join me?