Throughout Job’s story that we have been reading these last few weeks, Job has been longing for an encounter with God, to meet the Holy One face to face so that he might present his case, his defense, and be set free from his distress. In spite of all his wife and friends had to say, he felt sure that, once God heard him, he would be vindicated. Then God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, and Job realized that nothing was as he had imagined. Once we encounter the Holy One, once our eyes are opened to the Divine Presence in our lives, we are changed. Life is not the same.

In our gospel, blind Bartimaeus was begging beside the road going to Jerusalem from Jericho, no doubt hoping pilgrims would be generous. It was not the first day he was to be found there. For however long he had been blind, whether from birth, or accident, or disease, his only option in those days was depending on the kindness of others. Then one day Jesus came by. Not only was his blindness healed, but after the encounter he “followed [Jesus] on the way.” His life was changed in ways we can’t begin to imagine.

Consider Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush (Ex.3:1-12), Mary’s encounter with God’s messenger, the angel Gabriel (Lk.1:26-38), Paul’s encounter with Christ Jesus on the road to Damascus ( Acts 9:3-19); their lives were radically different from that day forward. Our encounters with the Holy One may be more subtle, less flashy, but no less life-changing when we open our hearts to receive what the Beloved has prepared for us. May we ever be alert to the encounter that is waiting for us in the here and now, trusting “that no purpose of [God’s} can be thwarted.”