Sometimes answers come slowly, through doubt, like an ice-blurred windowpane that melts into clarity one steady droplet at a time.
We don't tend to think in those terms, especially when it's our prayers soaring to heaven for relief. We tend to want the answers now, this minute—instant healing, instant direction, instant results—forgetting that sometimes we need to endure a time of doubt before the answers are made clear.
Jesus healed a blind man in Mark 8 in a way that may seem almost . . . contradictory. After spitting on the man's eyes, Jesus asked him, "What do you see?" "I see men like trees walking," came the response, proof that the man's vision was far from restored. It was only when Jesus touched him again that he was made completely whole.
Now, in that moment between blindness and clarity, what thoughts must have filled that man's mind? Was he questioning whether blindness had been better than the blurry haze he saw then? Was he doubting that Jesus had the power to heal him at all? Was he wondering why—if Jesus was truly who he claimed to be—the Messiah couldn't just heal him in one step, with a snap of his fingers?
It must have been confusing for him—uncertain, disorienting, frightening, perhaps—hoping for healing and receiving instead a smeared world of doubt and confusion. All he wanted was sight, something so simple. Couldn't Jesus give him that?
Of course he could, and in this case, he would . . . but he didn't promise healing right away. This man needed to trust Jesus in a moment of great uncertainty, and that faith carried him through to the pivotal moment when everything suddenly made sense.
In our struggles, Jesus hears us, and he has the power to answer our prayers. Hang in there. Keep trusting him, and remember that, sometimes, things get blurry before they become clear.