And Came Seeing

In what would be his final address in general conference, President Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about the man born blind who was healed by the Savior. The account reads this way: “When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:5-6). President Holland made this comment, “Another truth that is evident here are the instruments the Creator of heaven and earth and all that in them are used to provide this miracle: spit and a handful of dirt! These very unlikely ingredients declare that God can bless us by whatever method He chooses. Like Naaman resisting the River Jordan or the children of Israel refusing to look at the serpent on the staff, how easy it is for us to dismiss the source of our redemption because the ingredients and the instruments seem embarrassingly plain.” He then questioned, “So what if the answers to our prayers come in plain or convoluted ways? Are we willing to persevere, to keep trying to live Christ’s gospel no matter how much spit and clay it takes? It may not always be clear to us what is being done or why, and from time to time, we will all feel a little like the senior sister who said, ‘Lord, how about a blessing that isn’t in disguise?’” Perhaps sometimes we expect our prayers to be answered in a particular manner and so we miss the simple way in which the Lord is reaching out to us. Alma explained this to his son Helaman, “Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls” (Alma 37:6-7). Surely we all need a little figurative clay on our eyes to see more clearly the simple ways that the Lord is guiding our lives and answering our prayers. If we feel that we cannot see Him, it may be that our blindness comes from “looking beyond the mark” like the Jews of old (Jacob 4:14).

               One of those very simple answers to our challenges that the Lord has given us is the Book of Mormon. President Holland related, “My first sight-giving, life-giving encounter with real evidence of truth did not come with anointing clay or in the pool of Siloam. No, the instrument of truth that brought my healing from the Lord came as pages in a book, yes, the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ!... The impact of the Book of Mormon in my life is no less miraculous than was the application of spit and dirt placed on the blind man’s eyes. It has been, for me, a rod of safety for my soul, a transcendent and penetrating light of revelation, an illumination of the path I must walk when mists of darkness come. And surely they have, and surely they will.” Like the story of the healing of the blind man, the Book of Mormon itself came forth out of the dirt: “For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust” (2 Nephi 26:16). Also similar to how the blind man had to wash for the miracle to occur, this book out of the dust will only be impactful in our lives if we read it. Alma urged his son and people to not reject the word of the Lord because of its simplicity, comparing it to his fathers looking at the Liahona for guidance: “For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise. O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever” (Alma 37:45-46). The blind man went and washed, not questioning the simplicity of the request, and he came away seeing. As we go to the Book of Mormon with faith in its words, we too can come away seeing and, like President Holland, find “a rod of safety” and “a transcendent and penetrating light of revelation.”