Christmas may be over, but let’s not lose the wonder of who Jesus is.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, “And when He {the Messiah} comes, He will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!”(1) Blindness, deafness, lameness and muteness are not conditions that are orchestrated by God. They did not exist when God created the heavens and the earth. Rather, they are products of the fall of man that resulted from human sin. God had nothing to do with the creation of those conditions, but He has everything to do with their cure.

In John chapter 9, Jesus and His disciples encounter a man who had been blind since birth. The disciples asked Jesus the cause for this man being born blind. Most often when we witness or experience loss of this nature – whether it be loss of sight or hearing, or the loss of life, or the loss of position or possession – due to disaster, disease, violence or some unexplainable reason – we want to know what caused the pain. But most often even knowing the cause doesn’t provide us with a decisive explanation – let alone an explanation that satisfies us. Because we will never be satisfied with pain or loss – no matter the cause – nor should we!

However, if we are following Jesus, we can take strength from the Lord’s assurance….

Sometime this week most of us will meet someone we do not yet know. It may be at school or through work or at the gym. It could be at the mall or the doctor’s office or even in our own neighborhood. And soon after you meet, the conversation will turn to an explanation of who you are or what you do. Interestingly enough, we often equate those two things as being synonymous – who we are and what we do.

That can become a challenge when “what we do” changes. Because what we do is constantly changing. Over my adult life i have been an accountant, a businessman, an administrator, a pastor, a ministry leader, and now i find myself in the unlikely role of becoming an author. But “who i am” in reality did not change with each of those career shifts.

Sometimes we equate who we are in light of our most valued relationships. i am a husband or a dad or a grandpa or a son or a brother or a best friend, etc. But even our most valued relationships can sometimes change due to circumstances way outside of our control. So does that mean that who we are changes?

I believe it was that very core of who we are that Jesus was speaking to when He taught….