Mwaluko was a wealthy African chief who had great herds of cattle, a big house, and seven wives. Yet he was a heathen and had never heard of God who created the heavens and the earth. One of his wives had just become a Christian, and the other wives laughed at her when she went to hear the Word of God in a little mud hut in the next village.
It was about this time that began to notice mists before his eyes, and as the days passed his sight grew dimmer and dimmer until he could not see. So he decided to go to the witch-doctor, and after looking at his eyes, the witch-doctor said, “Yes, I can make your eyes better, but it will be a difficult medicine. You will see again if you give me that big bull of yours. Then I will dig you medicines, cook them, and you shall drink them, and in a few days light will return to your eyes.”
“I will certainly give the bull,” said Mwaluko, and he sent a herdman to bring the biggest bull immediately. The witch-doctor prepared a medicine of leaves, roots, honey, and a liver from a white rooster and cooked them for an hour. He made Mwaluko drink it all, but he soon became very sick. “What does it matter though,” said Mwaluko, “if only I receive sight again?”
But the days passed, and no sight came, so he knew he had been deceived. Then someone told him of a wise medine-man in a distant village, so he went to see him.
“Give me that spear and those shoes you are wearing, and I will make your eyes better,” said he. So Mwaluko gave him his fine, long, shiny spear; it had belonged to his father, and was one of his most prized possessions. He took off his shoes, which he had bought from a white man for a great deal of money, and gave them to the medicine-man.
The medicine-man put something on his eyes, which made them burn, but did not heal them. Then Mwaluko realized that he had been deceived again.
He went to another witch-doctor who told him that if he gave him his beautiful donkey, he would put some charms around his neck and wrists, saying, “These charms have great power in them. Wear them, and in a few days your sight will be restored.”
Mwaluko was deceived for the third time. His eyes were no better, and he had lost his bull, his donkey, his spear and his shoes.
One Lord’s day, Mwamvula, his Christian wife, came home from hearing the Word of God preached, and told him of a hospital at Mvumi where there were Christians who would heal his eyes. “They cure many diseases, and even blind men have gone there and found their sight again,” she said.
After weary days of travel, Mwaluko arrived at the hospital with his wives and counselors. After being admitted, he rested in a comfortable bed such as he had never slept in before. Three times a day James, a Christian African boy, came and rubbed ointment around his eyes and poured blue medicine into them. “You need not be afraid,” said James, “for tomorrow the Bwana (the missionary doctor) will cut your eyes, and then you will be able to see.”
Mwaluko was afraid, but he promised to do what the Bwana said, for he wanted more than anything else to see again. James prayed, and asked the Lord to help the Bwana.
Next day pain-killing drugs were put into his eyes, and after the operation, Mwaluko was able to see again, but he had to have bandages on his eyes for a few days. Each day James came and talked to him about the true God and the Lord Jesus, who had died on the cross for Mwaluko’s sins. Finally the bandages were taken off, and then, oh what joy to Mwaluko! He could see again!
But what gave Mwaluko his greatest joy was that during his stay in the hospital, through the Word of God read to him, he had found in Jesus the true Light. That precious light had shone into his poor darkened heart, and had shown him all the folly and wickedness of his past life, but it had also pointed Him to Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. Mwaluko believed and was saved; he passed from his heathen darkness into God’s marvelous light.
Some time after he told the Bwana and James: “When the bandages came off, I said, Now I know that only the people of God speak the truth. Three times I have been deceived by bad men, and gave them of my riches without getting better. But I came here to the hospital, and they restored my sight. Yes, I know these words which I have heard about God and about Jesus are true. I know that Jesus is my Saviour, and that I have eternal life through Him.”
When Mwaluko returned home, he went to hear the Word of God each Lord’s day with Mwamvula.
Has our reader, like Mwaluko, seen in Jesus the true Light? And have you found in Him your Saviour? Or are you still like so many in these favored so-called Christian lands, who have often heard the story of God’s love to sinners, but have never received it by faith into their hearts? Thus they are still in nature’s blindness. Mwaluko had never heard of the Lord Jesus before, but when he did he gladly received Him. God grant that you may have the faith to do so too, and be able to say,
ML 10/11/1959