The Childhood of Jesus
The Gospel of James
Biographical Gospel of the Lord
- Chapter 161 -
A Blind Man Receives His Sight
AT THIS TIME Mary also awoke, rubbed the sleep from her eyes, promptly arose and washed herself and exchanged the nightgown for her daytime dress in the small side chamber.
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Then she returned resembling an angel of heaven, so beautiful, so good, so devout and so concernedly resigned to the will of the Lord.
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She greeted Joseph and kissed him, then embraced Eudokia and kissed her.
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After this most friendly greeting, which always cost the aged Joseph a few tears of joy, Mary - humbling herself in her heart to the greatest extent - full of love knelt down by the crib and while praying gave her breast to the Baby.
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After the Baby was nursed, Mary promptly had a fresh bath prepared and bathed Him as usual.
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And the Baby cheerfully kicked about in the bath-basin and industriously made His inarticulate voice heard.
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When He was bathed and dried and again put into fresh little garments and foot wrappings,
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Mary asked the Baby how He felt and whether the fresh little garments made Him feel good.
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For she well knew that the Baby could speak, and that with divine wisdom. But she did not know and no one except James knew that the Baby had again bound His tongue.
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Hence all considered it strange that the Baby gave no answer to Mary's questions.
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Mary thereupon implored the Baby to speak only a little, but the Baby occupied Himself with His inarticulate voice in which there was no semblance of a word.
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That disquieted Mary as well as Joseph and they wondered if perhaps the angels had not taken the Child of God into heaven during the night and left just an ordinary child in the crib in His place.
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For the belief that children were interchanged was quite common among the Jews.
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Mary as well as Joseph regarded the Baby quite concernedly, wondering if in fact He was the same,
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but could not discover the least dissimilarity, neither about the head nor anywhere else.
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Here Mary said, 'Save the bathwater, and look for someone that is sick and bring him here.
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For up to now this water has always had a miraculously healing power.
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If the sick one gets well, we still have our Baby, and if he does not get well, it then has pleased the Lord to give us another child in place of His own!'
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Here James wanted to speak but the Baby forbade him this with words clearly audible in his heart, and he remained silent.
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Thereupon Joseph at once sent the oldest son into the city so he might bring back someone sick.
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In an hour and a half he returned with a blind man, and Mary washed his eyes with the bathwater, but the blind man did not receive his sight.
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This occurrence saddened Mary, Joseph, the four sons and Eudokia. Only James remained gay, and took the Baby and coaxed Him.
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And the blind man grumbled, for he felt that he had only been hoaxed.
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But Joseph consoled him and promised to provide for him for the rest of his life as recompense for this seeming hoax, whereat the blind man became calm again.
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Joseph now noticed how happy James was and held this up to him as a sin against Joseph as his father.
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But James said, I am happy because I know where I stand, but all of you sorrow because you do not know that. Do you not know that one should not tempt God?'
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Here James breathed on the blind man, who instantly received his sight! All now gazed at James in astonishment and did not know what to think.