Whose Fault Is It?

I am learning how to use new software to tweak my images. More truthfully, I failed to shoot correctly and I now have the tools to correct my mistakes. Case in point, I have a close-up of a ladybug crawling up a lilac flower. It was an instantaneous moment when from the corner of my eye I saw this red speckled creature moving on the leaf. Was the wind blowing, did my camera shake—most likely all of the above. With a few clicks of the mouse my new software can correct the blur but not perfectly.

A couple sits down in the doctor’s office, waiting for the report. They have been trying for two years to get pregnant, with no success; now, they want to know why. Last week they came in for the battery of tests that will begin to give them some answers, but as the doctor sees the tension in their faces, how they are unable to look at one another or hold hands, the doctor knows how the couple is framing their questions:

• Is she the one—is it her inability to conceive?
• Is he the one—is his sperm count too low?
• Is it her organs that are malfunctioning?
• Is it his stress that is interfering?

The doctor opens the folder and takes a deep breath. The question hangs heavy in the air: Whose fault is it, that we cannot have a baby?

Maybe it’s human instinct, to find fault. My poor camera technique, the wind was blowing, the ladybug moved. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism. If we know whose fault it is, at least we have a way to understand what has happened. At least we have a way to explain our part in it. Even better, we may find a way to excuse our part in it—which is to say, to put the responsibility squarely on another’s shoulders. If our only job is to find out whose fault it is, we can be assured of some retributive satisfaction: someone will pay for what goes wrong.

Do you see this, where you are? When the basement floods, when you had a car accident, when the Sonshine reflection falls flat, why are we so quick to ask, "How could this have happened?" And when we determine whose fault it was, why does the fault-finding so quickly turn to blame?

Remember the gospel story about the man poor blind? The disciples asked Jesus whose to blame. They’re just curious. They really want to know: Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? It’s a fair question for disciples to ask of their teacher, given the theological equations of the day (blindness = sickness = sin = human fault).

It’s a fair question for Jesus’ disciples to ask, given the fact that Jesus keeps turning the theological tables. I think the disciples really are open to the possibility that there might be a new and different answer, here. They really want Jesus to teach them. So who sinned, Jesus?—this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus’ answer stumps everyone, and it stumps me. No one sinned. He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. No blame. No fault. Just an opportunity for God to be seen and known.

Immanuel watches over us as we reflect: "Who is like the wise? Who know the explanation of things? A person’s wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance.” (Ecclesiastes 8:1).

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are looking for answers to put the blame on someone for our misfortunes when we might better ask ourselves what is God doing? Jesus changes the subject and wants us to ask ourselves-how can I help? It’s no one’s fault. Let God be God. Let we who are blind be healed.