John 9-3 "And as [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man which was blind from [his] birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned,nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

I am reading through John again. This morning I just did John 9, the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. It seems important that he was born blind, so that all will know it was not a natural event, his sight returning, but a supernatural event.

I believe it was common and was in many cultures, to blame those struck with various physical problems with having been cursed or they are reaping from theirs or their parents sins. Jesus said this is not so.

Sometimes we are born with problems that are not our fault yet we walk around shamed and feeling angry. I know I felt angry and shamed because I was born with, or experienced from a very early age, serious emotional and mental problems that at the start were not my fault. I like every other human being have sinned against God, but the things that happened to me as a young child were not my fault.

However God still has a plan! Jesus said about the man born blind, that Gods plan was to manifest His works through this man, God was going to use what the enemy had meant for evil, and bring good out of it. So Jesus healed the man.

So can God have had a plan for me? Yes! and I have to say that my family and all who know me have watched and seen God do His works in me. My family considered me to be the one who would not make it. I was considered too stupid to learn, yet I graduated from high school.

There are many things I cant share here that God did for me and my family watched...God kept me through a year of homelessness on the streets, then God kept me while I chose to keep and raise my daughter alone. My family tried to take her from me as I was not considered fit, however I kept her and raised her. She is grown up and yes she has some wounds from being raised by me, but she survived very well. I know my family watched all those years, not willing to help, but criticizing everything I did, yet none of their predictions came true. Both she and I have survived.

My brothers wife said to me last time I was there, she said (and she has known me for over 30 yrs) "I have watched you just get better and better. Every time I see you, you are more healed, more mature, more at peace and more able to cope with life"...

I was the one in my family voted least likely to succeed. and as far as this world's things goes, that is true, I don't have a husband or a house or a car or money in the bank. but I am the ONLY one of my family who absolutely loves Jesus.

The blind man was healed, and those who knew him watched and saw, and couldn't believe their eyes. they said, "Is not this he that sat and begged?"

As God lives His life through us, those around us are going to be looking and not believing their eyes. They will ask, is not this he that sat and begged? And we can say, Jesus healed me! This is HIS work and
it is for His glory!

When I am tempted to whine and complain about my birth circumstances, and my early childhood, I am reminding myself now that God had a plan in my life to bring good out of what was intended for evil. My doctor has said to me several times, he doesn't know how I am alive. Not physically, I have had good health, but mentally. He said many many women in my place don't make it, they die, drugs, alcohol abuse, being murdered or suicide. He knows the things I have been through and the times I was close to dying.

Yet I have made it, not on my own but because of Jesus. All praise and honor and glory to Him who works all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose."