Healing of Color-Blindness (Journal Entry)

7|27|12

Today, my camper Dakota ran straight into the reality of Christ's love. Last night, I was talking to him about religion vs. new covenant and how I got my eyes healed to see clearer and commanded legs to grow. His mind was racing. Dakota is a guy who has a great heart, but has had a life too hard for him to handle - a dad that does not love him and a mom who is not there for him. So, today he is what the world would call a "bad guy", but I am able to see the good in him because of Christ.

So today I showed him some Todd White on Youtube, and then right before camphitheater, him and I stayed behind because I heard he had color-blindness. I told him I wanted to pray for him because I wanted him to see color. He could only see black, white, gray, and brown. He was hesitant, but out of love, I convinced him that it would be worth it. He jokingly pulled forward his arms to see if I could first grow out his arms (like the video we saw on youtube). I took it seriously and pointed at his left arm first because it already was slightly shorter than the right. After several seconds it went past his left arm about 2 inches. He couldn't believe it. He said, "Phil, what's going on?" Then, I told his left arm to stop, and for his right arm to catch up to the length of the left one. At this, his mind was racing even more and kind of freaked him out a little, which caused him to be a little hesitant about his eyes. I remember him saying, "Phil, what if this doesn't work?" I told him, "It will, don't worry." For some reason I had confidence than I had ever had before - and I believe it was because of the love I had for Dakota.

He closed his eyes, and I touched them, commanding the color-blindness to go away, and for the eyes to be restored with color. It took about 10 seconds for the eyes to see a difference. I had him stare out into the field from cabin 23 and told him to start blinking. He was beginning to see the color green. He said, "Phil, what's goin' on?" He started seeing this color he has never seen before - green. "See this field?" I said, "this is the color green." I realized that he could only see green now along with the other shades. So I moved on to the color blue and pointed at my vest, and he said that it was gray, though clearly, it was blue. I prayed for his eyes to see blue, and he said, "Yeah, I don't see gray anymore, it's not gray." At this point, he began to really take this into heart, because when I moved onto the color yellow, he was still staring off into the green field, then turned around and his eyes were dripping with tears. This, I will never forget. He tried covering it up, but it was too powerful a moment for him. And knowing Dakota for just one week, he does not cry.

I asked him, "How are you doing, man? Want to keep going?"

"Go big or go home, right?" He responded. We exchanged smiles.

I taught him the color red because he had no idea what color it was. For me it was like I was a father showing my child the beginning stages of life and identifying color. I moved onto orange. So I grabbed Robert's orange frisbee in the cabin. I first pointed out to a bright orange cone that was on a table, but he said it was gray. I showed him the frisbee. He could see the blue because we went through that already, but the orange for him was gray. So I commanded his eyes to see orange, and these are his very words (which I love): "What the fuck, Phil?" This saying of his and "Phil, I didn't know this whole Jesus thing was real," are the two that I will never forget. I can replay them in my head, they stuck out so much.

We prayed for yellow, and he could see the yellow towel. There was one more color that I was not sure he could see - purple. So we walked on the campus past Harlow Lodge and on the other side of the lodge, I saw some flowers that had pink and purple in them. I asked Dakota, and he said, "These are the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen." 

He could see. No more death, but life. Me? I took for granted the color of life. This opened my eyes as well. But this isn't about me. I love this testimony of his because it was a clear demonstration of Holy Spirit and of power - of God's love for him. That is undeniable. 

"And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

1 Corinthians 2:4-5