Blindness
In all my time in Ophthalmology, seeing a variety of puzzling cases, the ones that baffled me most were of the type called "psychogenic blindness." These people were "blind" in every sense of the word, but had no anatomic reason for their blindness. They had to be led down a hall, assisted with being seated in a chair, and could not see me waving my hand in front of their face. But there was no anatomic reason for their blindness. I could tell from my clinical exam that their eyes were perfectly normal. CT and MRI scans showed no abnormality with the optic nerves, optic chiasm, optic radiations, or occipital lobes, where vision is interpreted in the brain. But they were blind.
Occasionally psychiatric treatment was helpful, but usually not.
Why were they blind? Because they wanted to be? Best not to be judgmental. But what other reason could there be? They simply did not "want" to see.
In the passage in Matthew 20: 29-34, Christ is leaving Jericho with his disciples. They pass by two blind men sitting at the side of the road. Hearing that it is Jesus that is going by, the two blind men start calling out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" (v. 30). The crowd tries to shut them up, but they persist, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!" (v. 31). The passage then says,
"Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?"
"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him." (Matt 20: 32-34).
They wanted to see, they asked Christ to give them sight, and He did.
So how much are we like them, people who want to see, and how much are we like the people with "psychogenic blindness" who don't want to see? God is real, Christ is who He says He is,
The Son of God, Savior of the World, Lord. But often we just don't want to "see" it. If we want to see the reality of the world we live in and the cosmos that surrounds us, if we want to know God and everything that He has planned for us, we can ask Christ to open our eyes and He will.
And then we will "see" and follow Him. But if we want to remain "blind" there is little that He can do for us.
The choice is ours.