Spiritual Blindness and Hardened Hearts

by Mike Ratliff 

And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?” (Mark 8:15-21 ESV) 

Last week my mother was hospitalized again. The diagnosis now is congestive heart failure. We traveled down there the weekend before this and tried to get the medical people at the skilled nursing center where she is staying to contact her doctor since her ankles were very swollen. Nothing happened. Thursday last week her lungs nearly filled up with fluid and she was having very bad chest pains. She tried to get help, but since her stroke, she is very hard to understand. Somehow, she had the staff there place a call to my sister. She talked to the nurse taking care of her, but he said her vitals looked okay. However, when the day people came in on Friday they panicked because she could barely breathe and was in a great deal of pain. They rushed her to the hospital. She got very good medical care there and now her lungs are much better and she is not having chest pains. We rushed down to OKC from KC on Friday and spent the weekend with her.