“Church” happened for me leaning against the back wall waiting for the second service to end last Sunday. I had already attended the first service. I was waiting for Laurie to finish singing in the second. Then I noticed them. Two women sitting close in a dark corner. Holding hands. Graceful movement. Realizing one of them was using sign language. The other was feeling her words with her hands. She was both blind and deaf.
I couldn’t stop watching. Crying. As I watched one in my world communicate to her friend that has no comprehension of this world. No understanding of what it means to “hear” or “see.” How do you even describe it to her? How would she describe her world to us?
Most of the signing was done with one hand during the sermon. Occasionally two. It was in those moments of both hands that it was most beautiful. The blind girl would be holding on to her friend’s single hand delicately. And then as if by instinct would reach into the darkness for her friend’s other hand. As if to say…”yes, but I need more.”
As the sermon closed we sang two hymns. “Great is They Faithfulness” and “Amazing Grace.” I’ve sung them both a thousand times. But never have I heard the lyrics before as I watched them sung to a woman who could neither hear or see.
“All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided….” Yes, and Amen. We are each her. Holding on so carefully to His hand as He speaks to us. Sometimes…often…wanting more of Him. So we reach out for both of His hands. Wanting to hear and feel every word.
“Morning by morning new mercies I see….” Yes, and Amen. But do we? We see yet have no vision. We read but don’t understand. What do “new mercies” look like to her? What does her morning look like? How do we see His mercies every day?
“I once was blind, but now I see.” Yes, and Amen. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder how she interprets these words.
I found a great quote from Helen Keller, “I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.”
I am somehow envious.
Thank you both for allowing me to see God through you as you sat quietly in the corner seeing His new mercies.
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