#WalkingTrees

Exercise is a wonderful thing! I decided in February that I needed more exercise and the easiest kind I could think of was walking. There is a route around my house that goes by the pond and club house that is about three quarters of a mile. It takes about twenty minutes for me to walk this route. When I first started this little exercise, I found that about half way through I wished I was done. I was tired.
Today, after nine of these twenty minute walks, I finished feeling strong and that, maybe, I could have gone on for a few more feet. The difference in my endurance has been almost imperceptible, but I have gotten stronger gradually.

There is a story in the Bible of a healing that Jesus did on a blind man. Mark 8 is jam-packed full of illuminating stories. The Pharisees questioned Jesus and wanted signs that  he was the Messiah. The disciples participated in the miraculous feeding of 4,000. The people followed Him, but not one had the correct understanding of who He was. So, the story embedded in this chapter of the blind man is a perfect illustration of how God teaches humans. Jesus spit on the blind eyes and then laid His hands on him and asked, "Can you see anything now?" After the man looked around, He told Jesus that he could see "men like trees walking". It was not a complete healing. Why? What was Jesus trying to say with this partial healing? He was pointing out to the Pharisees and the disciples and the people that they were not really seeing Him for who He was, yet.

Jesus did place His hands on this man again and his sight was completely restored. We, most likely have held misconceptions of Jesus. It is easy to become disappointed with Jesus if we do not know Him. We have to learn of Him and the best way to accomplish this is by reading the Bible, His words to us. The four Gospels tell of His life, but the whole Bible displays who He was before He was born and what He thought about all sorts of things and how He worked. We learn gradually, point upon point, line upon line and unless you are using the building blocks in Scripture, you will remain blind or seeing men as trees walking.