Today I was thinking about Jesus’ healing of the woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years (see Luke 13:11–13). It follows a pattern typical of Jesus’ healings: He saw the woman. He called her to him. He told her she was free of her infirmity. She was lifted up.
This account made me think of hiking in the Rockies with my dad when I was a little girl. Frequently he would see something beautiful, perhaps a mountain goat, or an eagle, or a pika. He’d call out to me and point to where he was looking. I would run to stand beside him, but seldom did I see what he saw. He would then stoop down beside me and put his face right next to mine, or sometimes he would hold me up so my eyes were at the same level as his. He would point so I could follow the direction he was looking. Then I would be able to see what he was looking at. And we would both look in silence at the beautiful sight.
Jesus saw a beautiful sight when he looked at the woman. Mary Baker Eddy writes: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 476–477).
