Blindfolded

In Matthew chapter 13, after Jesus has taught what is known as the parable of the sower, the disciples
had an important question for him. We can read this passage:
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

In order for us to truly see and comprehend God's truth, we have to have our hearts open and our minds sensitized to learn what God has to teach us.  Our minds can be renewed as we expose ourselves to His truth and allow it to speak to us.  God doesn't desire for us to go through lives with a spiritual blindfold on, trying to navigate the decisions we must face without the direction of the Holy Spirit.  He wants to uncover our eyes so that we might truly know Him.

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After healing a blind man, Jesus spoke to those who were witnesses, some of whom were challenging
this action. We read about it in John 9:
39 And Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind."
40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, "Are we blind also?"
41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you perhaps over the holidays was searching for a movie and you saw the banner ad featuring Sandra Bullock for a film called, Bird Box.  It's hard to know whether it was the star power there or some other factor or set of factors, but the MarketWatch website reports that the film "was viewed by more than 45 million subscribers in its first seven days on the platform, the most for the first week of a movie’s availability. Netflix claimed to have 137.1 million streaming subscribers as of the end of September, which means that almost one-third of them watched the movie in its first week of release."

So, I went to Plugged In to see what the movie was about that was creating all this fuss.  I found out that it is an R-rated film, and here's the premise:

The planet had been invaded. But the invaders don't attack physically: Just looking at them was something deadly: Most victims will kill themselves as quickly as possible. The very few who survive that initial glance seem enthralled by the creatures.

So, the main character, Malory, dons a blindfold, takes her two children, known as simply Boy and Girl, downstream to a place of escape she has heard about.  She has to follow the sound of birds.  With respect to a message from the film, reviewer Paul Asay states:

Malory's so wrapped up in surviving the present that she forgets to give her children hope for the future. I think there's an intentional real-world echo to be found in that.. . Hope and love—these are the things that life is built from, Bird Box tells us. Without it, we live in fear and despair, if we live at all.

The film is popular, all right, and it has spawned what we might say is the first social media challenge of 2019.  Last week, FoxNews.com reported:

On Wednesday, the streaming company issued a warning to viewers taking part in the so-called “Bird Box” challenge, in which people are called to do everyday tasks blindfolded.

“Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes,” the streaming service tweeted.

According to the story, "Using the hashtag #BirdBoxChallenge, social media users posted photos and videos of themselves attempting to do tasks like using the escalator, operating a scooter indoors and dancing without their sense of sight." The story adds, "Most of the videos end up with people crashing or falling."

So, is that an exercise of responsibility or a dare to participate?  I wonder what the effect of that announcement has been.  But, a cursory search of the hashtag on Twitter seems to indicate that people are continuing to participate.  I even saw a picture of two radio announcers with blindfolds on!

The challenge has garnered a reaction from the visually impaired community.  The GlobalNews.ca
website quotes Ashley Nemeth of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind Saskatchewan, who relates: “In a lot of the videos, when you watch them at the end, they’re saying ‘you can’t do this. You can’t do this blind. I couldn’t cook, I couldn’t text my friend, I couldn’t cross the street...The reality is you can do it- but you have to do it differently.” The article says:

While Nemeth has a lot of praise for the movie itself, she feels the challenge trivializes the independence of visually impaired people and years of hard work it takes to build those skills.

The organization is asking people not to participate; rather to "use this as an opportunity to learn more about the visually impaired."

Consider this: what if it were you; what if you had a disability, such as the inability to see?  How would that impact your life?  Something to think about.  And, it's important that we are sensitive to those around us who have special needs and challenges in their lives.

We also know that Jesus talked about blindness - physically and spiritually.  He healed those who were physically blind and taught about the importance of embracing His principles so that we could truly see.  We have to make sure that we are not walking through life blindly, but that our hearts are open so that we can truly see and believe what God has provided for us.