Jesus In Blue Jeans – Laurie Beth Jones

Having worn glasses or contacts for nearly twenty-five years, he found that suddenly being able to see without having to scramble for his lenses was something so amazing that he spoke about it with evangelical zeal. Joe’s experience made me think about the blind man Jesus healed. How precious must have been those first few moments of sight, when darkness gave way to light, distinct forms emerged from shadows, and then colors and shapes burst forth.

Annie Dillard shares in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek that surgeons who work to restore sight to people who have been blind all their lives are careful to note that sudden new sight requires a psychological as well as a physiological adjustment. Some patients could see only for a few hours at a time before asking to have their eyes shaded or closed by masks so they could rest. The sudden influx of visual stimuli is a shock to their systems.

Jesus dealt with the issue of sightedness in many ways. He called the scribes and Pharisees “blind guides.” He told them that because they claimed to see, but chose not to, their sin would remain. Doesn’t everybody have eyes? Doesn’t everybody see? Apparently not. My brother’s experience made me want to have an operation so that I, too, could get “a new pair of eyes.” Not with sight that measures 20/20, but with a vision that can see people and issues the way God does.

Georgia O’Keeffe said, “To see a flower takes time, just like to have a friend takes time.” Sight is an innate gift, but true vision must be trained. That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “You have eyes, yet still do not see!”—Mark 8:18 I envy artists’ eyes, because they have learned to look for details in form and texture and shadings. Their eyes realize that shadows are not made of the color gray, but are actually composed of blue and green and purple.

My mother can look at a face and sketch it almost perfectly, because she has eyes that were trained to see. During the Depression she used to earn lunch money by doing sketches of movies stars and selling them for a nickel. She once told me that she especially enjoyed doing the Dionne quintuplets. I calculated quickly and said, “Mom, that amounted to a penny a face!” “Come to think of it, you’re right!” she laughed, “but drawing babies is so much fun.”

I know that whenever we meet someone, she is seeing him or her differently than I am.

This book is dedicated to my grandmother Frances Jones Saunders, who taught me about poise, and to my grandfather Joseph Saunders, who taught me about perspective. My mother Irene Jones urged me to seek a life filled with passion, and my father Robert Jones taught me that I was worthy of power. And I want to especially remember my grandmother Irene Potters, who made sure that I had a constant supply of blue jeans while growing up.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: bc134d8ad9c1218f
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,469,953 bytes (1.402 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 242
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 270.31 minutes
• Total Words: 54,063
• Total Characters: 305,778
• Average Words per Page: 223.4
• Average Characters per Page: 1263.55

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