Seeing is Believing

Spring is only a few days away, but are we really convinced? Temperatures are still hovering in the winter range and although we’ve had a mild winter with a blessedly snowless January and February, March reminds that it’s still winter, true to form with its freezing temps and biting winds. Yet, there is more light as daylight lengthens, as the lawn shows some signs of green in response to the light. The all-knowing birds have once again begun to move about busily at the feeder, as their “calendar,” not ours, is precisely aligned with the universe. They know it’s spring. Yet here I sit, layered in warm clothing, watching as the woodpecker drills holes in the Atlas cedar, and mines the rising sap. He knows what the light reveals. And what about the crocus, making its presence felt in response to the light. What do these beacons of nature know that I don’t know?  I question and wonder, can it really be spring?

In our Gospel (John 9: 1-41), John reveals Jesus as the light in the darkness, calling forth life. And as witnessed by the world outside my window, all life springs from the light as it lengthens on its way to summer. In this ambivalent month: temperate one day, cold another, the light warms the soil and beckons dormant seeds to “life’s” renewal. March knows instinctively what we intellectually know but find hard to believe.

We can deny the season but we cannot deny the light’s return. Seeing is believing…right? In our Gospel, Jesus restores a blind man’s sight. Yet, the Pharisees are unwilling to accept what they see, and ask a barrage of challenging questions: can he really see; is this the same man who was just blind? They ask his parents if he was born blind; and how did Jesus open his eyes. What more can the man say; he was blind, Jesus gave him sight and now he can see. Still not wanting to believe what they have seen and heard, the Pharisees drive the man away…out of their sight.

Perhaps the unwillingness to believe in the obvious may seem an exaggeration by John to make a point, but is it? Sometimes, despite what we see and hear, we find difficult to embrace. The inability to let go and put our egos aside is part of our human condition. It can be argued that believing and understanding are the Provence of the intellect, while knowing is an intuitive part of our being. We know air, we don’t believe in it. So, what does it take for His light to penetrate our hearts and to just let go and accept without question? Isn’t it curious how all of nature knows the light and responds without question, and yet we can’t let go of our wintered-over hearts and just open our eyes to the light of new growth and life?

And the riverbank talks of the waters of March
It's the promise of life, it's the joy in your heart

And the riverbank talks of the waters of March
It's the end of all strain, it's the joy in your heart