STEPS TO AN ANSWER

Jesus, when I'm confused, help me look at things one step at a time. Amen!

Jesus saw a blind man begging. "Whose fault is it that he's blind -- his or his parents'?" Jesus' followers asked. "Neither," Jesus said. "He's blind so others can see God's power in him." Then Jesus healed the man. People kept asking, "How did Jesus cure you?" The man replied: "Only someone from God could." And he followed Jesus.

Math is a subject some kids find really easy, and others very confusing. Whether you cruise through math problems or struggle with them, one thing is clear: Doing math is step-by-step.

Say you have to do the math problem "15 X 4." The first step is to see that you're supposed to multiply the numbers. Then you multiply 5 times 4. The answer is 20. You write down the 0 and carry the 2. The next step is to multiply 1 times 4, which is 4. You add the 2 to that to get 6 and write it down: Your final answer is 60.

Math can be hard, but it can also help you to look at other situations in life step-by-step: for instance, this week's Gospel (John 9:1-41), where people ask why a man is blind.

Jesus' first step is to teach that it's no one's fault: that the man himself couldn't have done anything to make himself be born blind, and his parents aren't responsible, either.

The next step is to show that the man's blindness can be used to show how powerful God is: Jesus, the Son of God, can heal the man.

The man himself takes the final step: He points out that, since Jesus healed him, Jesus must be from God -- so he follows Jesus.

Taken one step at a time, the answer to a math problem can be obvious. Following Jesus' story one step at a time teaches something, too: Jesus is God, and worth listening to!

(02/28/08)