Taking Away Sight In Order To See

I recently wrote about how Saul lost his sight for three days as part of his conversion.  This was a clear turning point in his life in which the Lord was teaching him how to see with the right spiritual eyes.  I think we have a similar story in 3 Nephi 8.  After the three hours of terrible tempests, earthquakes, fires, lightning and general destruction among the Nephites, there was a period of three days in which “there could be no light, because of the darkness….  There was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which were upon the face of the land” (3 Nephi 8:22).  It was during this period when they could not see that they started their repentance.  They mourned, “O that we had repented before this great and terrible day” and lamented the death of those who had been killed.  It was also during this time that they heard the voice of the Savior as he pled with them: “O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3 Nephi 9:13)  I think it is significant that the Lord had to take away their physical sight in order to help them really see.  Perhaps there is an important symbol for us as well: each week the Lord asks us to stop “seeing” the things of the world for three hours as we attend Church.  If we do it right, we leave the cares and concerns of the world behind us as we take the Sacrament, learn, teach, and worship the Lord with the Saints.  The Lord told Joseph specifically that we come to His house on the Sabbath in order to keep “unspotted from the world” (D&C 59:9).  The problem that led the Nephites to the great destruction was that they sought for “power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world” (3 Nephi 6:15).  All that they could see and focus on with their physical eyes were the things of the world, and so the Lord took away their sight.  We are constantly bombarded with the pressures, temptations, technology, news, and the overall commotion of the things of the world.  Indeed, as William Wordsworth said, “the world is too much with us.”  The Lord invites us each week to lose our sight of the world and to come and see spiritual things.  In fact, we really have a daily invitation to shut our worldly eyes for a short time in order to pray, search the scriptures, and ultimately try to hear the Lord speak to us.  But can we really stop looking at the distractions of the world for long enough to hear?