Where did it go?

John 9:6-12

"So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (v7, NIV)

What an interesting way to put it: and came home seeing. The blind man didn't immediately receive sight, didn't dance and shout at the pool after seeing for the first time in his life, didn't run first to the Temple to offer sacrifcices in thanks for a miracle. He came home seeing, and was ridiculed by his friends and neighbors.

But isn't this always the way? If we come home different, with our eyes opened to a new reality, with new ideas and convictions, if we come home transformed, we consider it miraculous. While those still mired in the old world, in the old ways of seeing, in the old reality with the old convictions, will accuse us of treachery and treat us with suspicion. They will doubt the sincerity of our transformation - were we ever really the way we were, are we really the way we are now? And they will question us: How did this happen? And they will not be satisfied with our answer.

"How then were your eyes opened?!"

"Where is this man?"

I don't know.

This transformation, this healing, this opening to new worlds isn't something you can locate, corral, drag into court or put under a microscope. Its sponteneity is part of its charm. It is working in all of us all of the time, and sometimes some of us are particularly open to it. Jesus is walking all around - and there are blind people left and right. Why does Jesus stop to heal this one, who didn't even ask? Who can say? But it doesn't mean that man didn't receive (in)sight. Just because lightening strikes one person and not another doesn't mean lightening didn't strike at all.

And just like lightening, Jesus disappears, leaving the smoking, seeing man behind to face the doubts, looks and scrutiny of his peers.

Where is this man, they asked him.

"I don't know," he said. I'm not sure what happened, or where to go from here. All I know is that I see now what I did not before. And I will have to figure out how to be in this world now.