Blindness Not About Eyesight
By Marion Spellman

"And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul...." -Acts 22:7

Today's devotional finds Saul of Tarsus thrown to the ground during his first encounter with Jesus Christ. He lay there trembling and afraid, not realizing the reason for - nor the scope of - his recent blindness.

The "great" Saul, flaunting and enviable educational pedigree and enjoying an elite social status, was not blind and being aided by the hand of the man he sought to imprison. On a street called Strait, Ananias, - a nobody - would find a broken and confused young man who was to become one of the greatest and most humble visionaries this world would ever know.

Was his blindness caused by the fall from his ass? Or could it have been because of the wrath and judgment of God? We will soon discover that the deeply embedded root of Saul's blindness can be traced to the blackness within his own soul. The truth of the matter is that he was totally blind before he fell from his donkey. The loss of his sight was simply a vivid personification of the real man. His groping darkness served as the road map that led him to the Damascus experience.

Here is a person driven by his desire to seize and capture his fellow man. He had determined that certain people were not worthy to live. There was no love nor room in his heart for them. After all, they were "different." As far as Saul was concerned, they deserved no mercy. He would conduct his life and make his decisions from this perspective. And, of course, he was right because that's the way he saw it!

The master's gift for Saul was to see. The master's will was for Saul to become Paul. But God's ways are not our ways. His sights could only be granted in the midst of his blindness. For in this dark and desolate place on this street called Strait, he would come to believe that his aggressive persecution was not merely against mankind, but was in reality against the Lord. He would also discover the real meaning for his own life.

By surrendering his will and forsaking his fight, he was actually able to see for the first time. He would finally embrace (as a result of his blindness) the hidden purpose that God had for his life. God's divine plan had greater significance than he had ever imagined.

Referring to this same man, Jesus said, "...I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee..." (Acts 26:16)

The Damascus road encounter changed Saul's life forever and made it well worth it for him to forgive.