Now I See!

I became a Christian four years ago, in my late 50s. Family troubles at the time were really starting to eat away at me. A friend suggested I go to an Alpha Course, and while I was on the course I had a miracle from God.

A few years before, I had started to lose my sight. I’d been to opticians and specialists and been diagnosed with macular degeneration, loss of my central vision.

I knew what it meant to go blind because I run a telephone information and news service for the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. I was the original news reader for the service and now have 14 people in my team. As a volunteer for the Foundation, part of my training involved wearing glasses that simulate what it’s like to lose your sight this way and to only see life from around the edges of your eyes. So I knew the signs.

I’m not a quitter and I didn’t want to get desperate. I just wanted to make the most of my situation. 

While on the Alpha Course I was using a magnifying glass, so it was obvious I had an eyesight problem. I spoke to one of the girls about it and she asked if it would be okay to pray for healing for me and to pray that I would bring God into my life. I felt a little uncomfortable when they started praying because I hadn’t experienced anything like this before, but as they prayed I felt a heat and peace come in through my head and go through my body. I felt that I was being wrapped up in a big, warm cuddly blanket.

I’d always held myself back from God because I never felt worthy enough. I’d known that Jesus was real, but the Alpha Course was the doorway—it gave me the confidence to actually say out loud: ‘Yes, I am worthy of Jesus, and yes, I want him to be a big part of my life.’ And at that moment, I knew I was worthy. I knew that Jesus was with me.

I was quite emotional and cried all the way home. The next morning, I woke up and went to get out of bed. As I did, I looked down at the floor and could see everything in detail on the carpet.

I knew straight away that I had been healed. I went back to the same optician I’d been going to for over five years and she did not know what to say.

Today, Jesus is my everything; in everything I do or think or say, I think of Jesus. Now that Jesus is in my life, I have absolute calm where before I would have said the wrong thing or judged people. If I’m in a situation where I don’t know what to do, I’ll say out loud: ‘Jesus, please show me the way. Show me what I should do.’ I feel a calm coming over me and I just know that if I trust, it will be alright. Jesus has changed me so much and I feel his presence with me all the time.

I’d always liked drawing when I was a child. As my sight was going, I had this real urgency to pick up a paintbrush—and once I was healed, I started to paint portraits of humans and pets. That artistic gift must have been inside me, because people want to buy my paintings. I feel that I’ve been given a wonderful second chance, and I need to step up and give something back. So I have children come to my house for art lessons.

I was enrolled as a Salvation Army soldier (member) a year ago. I now serve as pastoral care and community worker at The Salvation Army in Johnsonville. And I’m loving it! I feel like I’ve come home. From now on, I want to live like Jesus did—I want to treat people like Jesus did.

By Sue Bradley (abridged from War Cry, 17 December 2011, p15)