Psalms 31, 35; Jer. 24: 1-10; Rom. 9: 19-33; John 9: 1-17

In John 9, 1-17 we read the familiar story of Jesus healing the blind man by spitting in the dirt, putting the mud on the man's eyes and telling him to go wash in the pools of Siloam. What strikes me in this story is the reaction of the people that know this man. "His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, 'Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?' Some claimed that he was. Others said, 'No, he only looks like him.' But he himself insisted, 'I am the man.'"

How is it they didn't recognize this beggar? They had surely passed him many times every day.

Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Sergeant Major Milt Servais of the Salvation Army. He told me his encounter with Jesus that left his life unrecognizable. When he was young, his father was in prison which left his mother on the streets with her four young children. The only social service program in their area was the Salvation Army soup line. The people at the Salvation Army saw that Milt was struck with polio and worked to get him medical attention. The polio went into full remission. The Salvation Army Chaplin went to the jail and "planted a seed of hope -- prayed --it took root" in his father. His father came out of incarceration to serve as an officer in the Salvation Army for the next 50 years. Milt told me, "I was told about Jesus and it has shaped my destiny for that day to this." Until Milt Servais passed a few years ago, he spent his whole life working in the poorest sections of Nashville. He received the Order of the Founder Award, the highest world-wide honor given in the Salvation Army. Milt Servais' son continues working with the poor to this day. This family was unrecognizable from the one that stood in that charity soup line so many years ago. Their encounter with a living, breathing Savior left them saying, "I am the man."

None of this would have been possible without that soup line. Jesus said that neither the father's or mother's sin was responsible for the man's blindness, "this was done so that the works of God might be done." We don't know what leads us to the circumstances we find ourselves in. It may seem hopeless as we sit in blindness and feel our way through the days. But once we encounter the living Christ, we may not even look the same to those who have known us all of our lives.