Desert

In the gospel of Mark, a blind man is brought to Jesusnand asked to have his sight restored. Jesus takes him away from every, out of the town. Jesus then spits on the man's eyes and He then asks the man if he can see. The response is that he can make out shapes but not clearly. The people look like trees, he says. Jesus does this action a second time and then the man's sight is restored.

 One might be tempted to say why, if Jesus is the messiah,did the first attempt to heal the blind man fail? It certainly appears that way doesn't it? It seems Jesus slipped up. But there are some very important ideas here that I find intriguing and exciting. And comforting.

Note that Jesus takes this man away from everyone,. Away from the town. Away from his job. Away from his home. Jesus takes him to the silence of the desert area outside the town walls. In the silence he is left alone with The Lord to truly find Jesus and here His voice.
  And then there is that failure thing. Remember that every time someone is cured Jesus never says,'there you go! I did it again!' He always tells the stricken that they have been healed by their faith. So there in lies the failure. That the man's faith was not yet fully matured, not yet fully ready for the entire healing process. He was not yet ready to see through the eyes of God.
  How great is that? That if we are not fully ready, if we still have a way to going our journey of finding God in this life, that Jesus will keep healing us over and over again until we can see as the Father, love as the Father, Live as the Father. And notice that this passage seems to emphasize that time alone with Jesus is necessary to get that process moving.

We must take the time out of our busy lives to pray. Away from our friends. Away from our jobs. Away from our cities. Away from our noise. We must find the silence of our deserted place and let Jesus being to heal us, for we all need some healing. After all, as one man once told me, the church is not filled with holy people, because if that is what the church is for, it would be empty. The church is filled with sinners trying to change their lives. Trying to be the best people they can be. Trying to help others achieve that same goal. Trying to find their deserted place.