“If you are willing to heal a blind beggar, then why won’t you heal me?” was my lament as I cried out to God in October of 2009, sitting in a pew at St. Thomas Anglican Church in Kagiso1, on my third mission trip to South Africa.
An eye injury in May 2007 left me with blurry vision in my right eye. At the end of each day my eyes ached from strain; I saw flashes of bright light every time I turned my head to the right and I’d fall if I balanced on one foot. A handful of ophthalmologists and neuro-ophthalmologists all had the same conclusion: there was nothing medically wrong, I just couldn’t see.
Fr. Victor challenged me that day: “Faith is eager, assertive, hopeful, impetuous, and courageous.” I wanted to be faithful and I definitely wanted to be healed. When Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Bartimaeus and I answered the same way, “I want to be able to see.”
Bartimaeus was healed on that dusty day in Jericho, but I wasn’t healed on that Sunday of my mission trip. It would make a better story if my vision returned to normal on the plane ride back to the States, but nothing changed. After I returned home, I moved on to praying for other things and other people, thinking that blurry vision was my lot in life.
It was almost two years later, on June 28, 2011 that my vision started to change. As I was defending my Ph.D. research, I felt the strain going out of my eye, and the floaters starting to break apart. The “cheesecloth view” began to fade and my right eye started to focus. A visit with my ophthalmologist on August 19 confirmed 20/20 distance vision in my right eye. Even my balance has returned.
I have been healed.
Many of my friends have asked, “Is it a miracle? Is there any other explanation after 4-1/2 years of blurry vision?”
I don’t know if it is a miracle or not. All I know is that before I couldn’t see, and now I can.
Please forward this post to everyone you are praying for to be healed.
God may not heal us immediately, but we can be assured that He will heal us in eternity.
Blessings, my friend,
Agatha
(Picture: Setting Sun: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa)