EMERGING FROM THE DARKNESS

Acts 9:17-19"Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

One of my wife and daughter's favorite springtime activities involves the capture of a caterpillar, placing it in a jar, and over the next few weeks watching it's metamorphosis into a butterfly. When I read about the scales falling from Saul's eyes, I thought of the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis -- the same creature yet through God's miracle of transformation, so completely different. Saul could see again -- but did he see things in the same way or did he see the world with Christ's eyes? Did he still have the narrow world view of the caterpillar from crawling around on the ground for so long (rocks can seem like mountains and puddles like oceans), or did he now have the vantage point of the butterfly -- still in the world, yet with a completely different perspective?

I think the answer to this question for Saul is obvious -- when he emerged from blindness his life was forever changed as he became a "new creation in Christ". He no longer had the same perspective or eyesight -- and we -- two thousand years later have been greatly blessed as a result.

How do you see the world? Do you see it the same as your non-Christian friends or do you see it through Christ's eyes? Are you still stumbling around with your eyes closed or have you let Jesus change your perspective? How can you begin to change right now?

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