This week as I have been thinking about my time in the LDS Church and the blessings I’ve experienced since leaving, I have been drawn to the odd healing story in Mark 8:23-25.

“23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 Regaining his sight he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” 25 Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

When I joined the LDS Church, I came from a Jewish background and had spent several years as an atheist. I had very little basis for faith in Jesus or God. I was blind to God and his ways. Looking back at my time in the LDS Church, it now feels like God used it to open my eyes a little bit, but I could only see as if people were like trees walking. I could catch glimpses of grace. I could gain an appreciation for Jesus’s death on the cross. But it was all fuzzy and filtered through Joseph Smith’s distorting revelations. Still, I do believe that I had meaningful positive experiences with God during my time in the LDS Church even through the disorienting filer of the “restoration.”

Now, it feels like in due time Christ came and placed his hand on my eyes again and my eyes were opened and full sight restored. I now see the power of grace. I now understand the glory and majesty of God and worship him with all my heart.

Could God have led me to saving faith in Biblical Christ 14 years ago. Yes, of course. Just as Jesus healed so many people without any intermediate steps. But for some reason, Christ knew that this man’s healing would best be performed in steps. He knew the right timing to deliver full healing and deliverance for this man. That really resonates with me. God in his sovereignty and perfect omnipotence knew the way to lead me home to him and for whatever reason that involved an intermediate stop in the LDS Church on the way to full healing and deliverance.