What have I done wrong now?

“Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” — John 9:2

I am a disaster.

So are you.

I step on things (sometimes literally in a house with small kids). I break things. (I did just say I step on things.) I drop things. I forget things. I say things that should not be said.

I can dismiss these things away, but I sin. Why the disciples are asking about another person’s sins when they have sin is not a mystery. It’s an opportunity. The man is born blind, Jesus says, so that the power of God can be seen in him (verse 3).

What happens in this man’s story is that God’s power and healing can be seen. In the man who was blind but now sees, we can see that God has blessed him as a messenger. The one healed by Jesus is a living testimony of God at work not just in this one man’s life, but in the lives of those he touches.

This is true for us, too. The sins that keep us apart from God and from others disappear when we ask, “What have I done wrong now?” The question gives us the opportunity to see where we have sinned.  This enables God to bring vision and resolution where there was darkness.

That’s power. That’s healing.

PRAYER: Lord, You are not done with us disasters who do step on, break or drop things. When it comes to our sin, help us see that we are never done with You. Amen.