Following is a Choice

“And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.” (Mr 10:52 AV)

How many of us would do the same?  When given the opportunity to go or follow, how many of us would follow?  This blind man had much to see.  He has not seen his family.  Ever.  Never gazed into his mother’s eyes.  Never seen his father’s approval.  Never beheld the faces of his siblings who loved him dearly.  Never seen a sunrise or sunset.  He had never seen the beauty of the birds who sang melodies sweetly in his ears.  He had never seen children play, lovers court, or joy at a feast.  He had heard them all.  But never had he witnessed it with his eyes.  He had suffered all his life from the malady of experiencing life at half-speed.  Now, his sight is restored.  He can not enjoy life as he has never been able to do.  The Savior gave him permission to do so by telling him to go his way.  Rather, this convert by sight decides a life of following Jesus with his sight is better than being made whole yet without Him.

The vast majority of us chose the former.  We go our own way.  We are grateful for salvation.  We truly are.  We are not presumptuous with it.  We rejoice that we are forgiven.  We may even tell others of His wondrous grace.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean we are following.  When we lived in the country, every now and again we would enjoy the company of a stray animal.  Usually a dog.  The warnings of our parents would ring in the ears. “Don’t feed it.  It will never go away.”  It is interesting.  Even the animal kingdom understands that if mercy is shown, following should be the natural response.  We had this German Shepherd pup collapse on our front yard.  It was hot and this dog was obviously in distress.  We gave it some water and food.  As long as we took care of it, it stayed on our front yard.  As soon as it was nursed back to health, we ceased the water and food and it sought somewhere else. 

Even the animal kingdom understands loyalty.  If a human being is benevolent, then that animal will show loyalty.  If the animal kingdom can follow, why cannot we?  All the LORD is asking is that we continue to trust Him in life as we have for death, living in obedience to His word.  What we must see here is that God will not force us.  He will give us the option of going our way, or following.  He will not give us the option of escaping the consequences of one choice over the other.  But He does afford us that choice.  By the way, seeing a miracle of the Savior is far more impressive than seeing the normal things of life.  Perhaps the man knew this.