蜜芽传媒

Good morning.

On this day in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope sent its first photos from space. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile, and it鈥檚 still in operation today. Because Hubble operates outside the distortion of the earth鈥檚 atmosphere, it can capture extremely high-resolution images.

The problem of factors that distort our ability to see things clearly is not restricted to space telescopes, however! We all have factors which cloud our vision, preventing us from seeing people and situations clearly, and impairing our judgement. Sometimes these are events in our past which colour the way that we experience things, and sometimes they may be problems in the present. Perhaps the most dangerous factors are those which we are completely unaware of.

In John鈥檚 gospel Jesus gets into trouble for healing a blind man, leading to a debate over what true blindness means. Jesus comments on the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders, whose hearts are preventing them from clearly seeing the wonderful miracle performed before their very eyes. He says to them: 鈥淚f you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.鈥�

God of light,

In you there is no darkness at all. But we find it hard to see clearly, and our past pains, our present prejudices and our future fears obscure our vision.
Heal our eyes, restore our vision, and help us to see others with your gaze of love. Where there are things that cloud our vision, remove them with your gentle and skilful hand.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen.