Eyes Opened by the Blind
Our church has a Zoom after church fellowship during this time of only online services. It is a nice way of connecting with people.
The fun thing is that there are different people showing up each time. This past week, we had two people who were both born blind.
We know them both well and it was great to have them join us. But I never realized how much we rely on things we can see.
Someone in the Zoom conversation made a comment about an emoji. One of the ladies who was blind asked what an emoji was. We were stumped.
Think about it. Even if you were talking to someone unfamiliar with technology and who had never heard of an emoji, you could describe it by other things we see. It is kind of fancy smily face.
But how do you explain that to someone who has never seen? They would not know what a smily face was. We struggled to explain it and eventually gave up.
What this reminded me of was the fact that we take things for granted. I have found myself making statements that assume another person’s ability. That doesn’t make me a bad person but it should cause me to think.
In what other ways do we take things for granted?
By the way, my wife and I shared this experience with our children. My fourteen year old son quickly came up with an answer. “Just say it is a sticker representing different emotions.”
Better late than never.
