The waves were usually gentle, with only an occasional tempest.  The smell of flowers and fruit trees teased the senses and invited you to come further in and find their source.  The people were generally pleasant, milling about fulfilling their various duties with very little complaint.  It was the ideal island paradise, except for one small problem.  Every inhabitant was blind.  The odd thing was they didn’t know they were blind.  In fact, they didn’t even have a word for “sight” or “seeing” or “blind” in their language.  Every generation had always been blind, and every future generation would have remained that way if it weren’t for one soul who decided to venture off the island to find out if there was more to hear, touch and smell in a world outside of the only home he ever knew.

When he returned from his travels, he came back with a gift.  He had received his sight on a neighboring island.  It was a slightly painful process, but the small amount of pain didn’t compare with the joy of seeing!  It opened up a whole new world.  Instead of walking about carefully, wondering when he would stumble and fall, the Strange One, as he came to be known, would walk boldly where the others trudged carefully along.  He could still smell the flowering fruit trees as he always had, but now he could see their vivid and beautiful colors as well.  The richness that sight added to his life couldn’t be measured.  The best news was everyone on the island could receive their sight.  They weren’t doomed to remain blind their entire lives.  Young and old could receive the gift, just as he had.

When the Strange One began to share his story he was shocked at his reception.  Instead of the news being joyfully received, his message was greeted with suspicion.

One young man spoke up and said, “How do we know you are telling the truth?”

An older woman with eleven children in tow said, “I’ve never heard of anyone ‘seeing’ before; what is this ‘sight’ thing that you go on ranting about?”

The Strange One replied, “I’ve been off the island.  I was healed.  I can see!  Why won’t you believe me?”

Finally a white-haired gentleman, full you years, stepped forward leaning on his ornately carved cane and said, “Why should we believe you?  And how do we know this ‘seeing’ thing is really better? I get along just fine the way I am.  It is the way my father and his father lived, why should I change?”

At first the Strange One was taken back.  Why wouldn’t they believe him?  At the least, why wouldn’t they find out for themselves? After many days and weeks he began to understand.  There was comfort in being the way “everyone else” was.  After all, he had been blind for many years himself.  He had always believed that his condition was “normal.” He remembered how he felt safety in things reaming the same.

Like him, they would have to blindly trust (yes, it was ironic) someone who told them he had received this marvelous gift of sight, and that he knew a way they could also see.  If they took that step of faith they would need to leave the island, the only place they had ever known, to be healed.

From their perspective, if he was lying, there would be even greater loss than if they had just remained where they were.  Comfortable on many days, and hanging on for dear life for a few days when the storms rolled through.  But at least they would be where they had always been.  The island was “home.”  It was “safe.”  But mostly the risks were known, and that gave them some small comfort.  “Better the devil you know, than the one you don’t” as the old saying goes.