Worth It

Olivia Parker sits alone at Whit's End, and Mr. Whittaker gently joins her. Her parents have told him that ever since her teacher Mr. Norton died, Olivia has been wrestling with hard questions about God. Though she says she would rather work things out on her own, one question spills out anyway: if God is good and all-powerful, why doesn't He get rid of people's pain? Whit answers that pain can serve a purpose, building perseverance, faith, and character, but he admits that no one can fully understand the mind of God. That gives Olivia an idea, and Whit sends her into the Imagination Station with a Bible story that might give her a peek into it.

Olivia lands in the busy streets of Jerusalem, where she meets a worried mother named Lydia searching for her twenty-year-old son, Ezra, who has been blind since birth. Olivia finds him begging near the Pool of Siloam, and she learns that instead of staying put, he has slipped away again chasing rumors of a healer. Over dinner at their home, Lydia tells Olivia that Ezra keeps giving away his money to fake healers, and she declares that her son "has fallen in with the worst of all possible enemies, hope." Years of hardship, including the death of a healthy baby before Ezra was born, have left Lydia and her husband bitter toward God.

Ezra, though, sees the world differently even without eyes. Sitting outside that evening, he tells Olivia, "I like smelling the sunset." He asks her to describe herself, and when she can't, Lydia does it for him, reading Olivia so well that she describes the lost, empty feeling behind her eyes, someone feeling around in a dark place with nothing to hold on to. Olivia is shaken by how true it is. Ezra confides that he dreams of seeing birds, sunsets, and most of all his mother's smile, and he whispers that a man named Jesus is in Jerusalem, a healer with real witnesses to his miracles. When Lydia overhears, she forbids Ezra to go, calling it foolishness.

The next morning Ezra is gone. Olivia and Lydia rush into town, where a crowd has gathered around Jesus, and there is Ezra. Someone asks whose sin caused the man's blindness, his own or his parents'. Jesus answers that neither sinned, but that this happened so the works of God might be displayed. Lydia is furious at the idea that her son was born blind so God could be glorified. Jesus puts mud on Ezra's eyes and tells him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam. Lydia grudgingly leads him there, still scolding him, until Ezra suddenly feels warmth behind his closed eyes, pointing exactly where the sun is. When he opens them, he can see: his mother's face, the water, the birds, and Olivia's red robe at last. Overjoyed, he runs off to look at everything, while Lydia, stunned, hurries back to Jesus. She thanks Him, saying He brought her son out of the darkness and has done the same for her.

Later, Olivia asks Ezra the question gnawing at her: was one moment of glory really worth twenty years of blindness? Instead of answering right away, Ezra points across the way to his mother sitting at the feet of Jesus, smiling, something he has longed his whole life to see. "Was it worth 20 years of darkness? Yes. Absolutely."

Back at Whit's End, Olivia still thinks it seems unfair. Whit explains that God thinks in terms of eternity, while our lives are only a speck on the timeline. Who knows how many people Ezra told about Jesus, how many became followers, and what the miracle did for Ezra and his mother forever after. When bad things happen, we see them through a narrow scope, not an eternal one, so we have to trust. Olivia admits the answer is only kind of satisfying, and she confesses she has many more questions and doubts she isn't ready to share. Whit senses that something happened to her beyond grief over her teacher's death, but Olivia deflects and heads home. Before she goes, Whit tells her he is obeying her parents' wishes: to pray for her. Quietly grateful, Olivia thanks him and admits she really does appreciate that.