Friday, January 1
Firsthand Vision by David Lennox
Roy was nearly 50, but in his heart he was as youthful as any OPINION
amper that week. He had been assigned to my cabin. I wasn’t sure Key text:
that my nineteen years of living had prepared me for the job of Exodus 2:25
guardian and helper to this man.
But I liked Roy. He laughed heartily at his own jokes, winked at
a]l the women he met, and played ragtime tunes on the piano with
gusto and flourish. His white cane tapped its way into all corners of
he campground.
Roy put me at ease, for he seldom questioned my guidance, even
when my inexperience called for it. I tried hard to be worthy of his
rust, but most of the time I was merely in the way, tripping over his
ane or pointing out the obvious. “I'm blind, not deaf,” he would
sark when I spoke too loudly—then he would smile.
His laughter always came quickest when his handicap was the
most obvious. Like the time I forgot to tell him I was leaving, and he
>nded up talking to an empty chair for several minutes. When I
apologized he chuckled at the scene and patted my shoulder. “They
Jon’t make you seeing-eye counselors like they used to,” he said.
_ater he told me that he understood: sighted people always forget
“hings like that.
It’s true that I have a hard time imagining Roy’s situation. When
he person to whom I'm talking leaves, I can tell. I've never fallen
sen feet down a manhole left uncovered by careless workmen, as Roy
1as, either. Being blind is far from the realm of my experience. So is
he Israelites’ problem of making bricks in the hot sun under the
whip of a half-crazed Pharaoh’s agent.
I do have my own kind of handicap, though. My bondage is easier
0 ignore, sometimes, and harder to define. It is the kind of spiritual
oppression that puts me—and the rest of the human race—in the
1eed of a Deliverer.
Fortunately for me, for Roy, and for the Israelites, our God is
watching. Exodus 2:25 gives assurance: “So God looked on the
sraelites and was concerned about them” (NIV). God sees our situa-
ion; His concern means soon deliverance. And our Deliverer under-
stands our bondage, because He has suffered under Caesar’s whip
and has felt firsthand the despair of sin. There’s no better prepara-
ion for an all-seeing Counselor—I think Roy would agree.
REACT
1. The Israelites had come to Egypt under the guidance of God
hrough His miraculous intervention at the time of Joseph. Why,
hen, did they find themselves suffering such cruel oppression? Does
ollowing God’s leading prevent affliction from falling on us? Does
sod promise to keep us from trouble at all times or does He some-
imes allow us to experience trouble for reasons that He knows best?
2. How do I react to affliction—Do I see it as a means of develop-
ng greater strength of character or as an evidence that God has for-
.aken me?
Javid Lennox is a junior English and speech-communication ma-
or at Walla Walla College, Washington.
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