As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
We went to numerous churches when I was growing up. There was a small church in Irwin, PA, right outside of Pittsburgh; we also attended Sand Beach Bible Church in Hummelstown PA, in a small community of 100. There were churches in Dallastown, York, Salisbury ... Mom also dropped us off at a goodly number of Vacation Bible Schools, after-school Bible classes and of course, the good old Good News Bible club.
In all of these meetings and lessons, there was one thing that I sought when growing up: I wanted to see who Jesus was. I really did. I wasn't as interested in those stories about other Bible characters whose names and places were hard to pronounce. I didn't really like flannelgraph (too static, and the characters kept falling off) or puppets (for some reason they always seemed creepy to me). But give me a good story about Jesus!
The miracles, the loneliness, and the crowd response always caught my interest. I especially loved when I could tell that the teacher was especially involved with the story and the subject. (Kids can always tell, can't they?) I could listen to a dedicated lover fo Jesus for hours on end.
The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
We went to numerous churches when I was growing up. There was a small church in Irwin, PA, right outside of Pittsburgh; we also attended Sand Beach Bible Church in Hummelstown PA, in a small community of 100. There were churches in Dallastown, York, Salisbury ... Mom also dropped us off at a goodly number of Vacation Bible Schools, after-school Bible classes and of course, the good old Good News Bible club.
In all of these meetings and lessons, there was one thing that I sought when growing up: I wanted to see who Jesus was. I really did. I wasn't as interested in those stories about other Bible characters whose names and places were hard to pronounce. I didn't really like flannelgraph (too static, and the characters kept falling off) or puppets (for some reason they always seemed creepy to me). But give me a good story about Jesus!
The miracles, the loneliness, and the crowd response always caught my interest. I especially loved when I could tell that the teacher was especially involved with the story and the subject. (Kids can always tell, can't they?) I could listen to a dedicated lover fo Jesus for hours on end.
Mrs. Soo was one of those teachers - a small Japanese lady who led a Good News Bible club in our ranch house garage in Irwin. She had a love for Jesus and for each of the kids attending - she even gave us chop sticks at the end of the school year.
I may not have understood all of Jesus, but I got to see some of Him in teachers like Mrs. Soo. And that was incredibly important at that time of my life.
