Brigham Young University Associate Professor of Mathematics, Jennifer Brooks, delivered a message centered on spiritual vision, her own physical blindness and how life's afflictions can become opportunities for "the work of God" to be revealed.
Brooks combined teachings from the scriptures on spiritual blindness with her own experience of living with a degenerative eye disease. She encouraged the audience to view afflictions as opportunities to recognize God's influence and shared how developing faith in Jesus Christ transformed her life more profoundly than any physical healing could.
"Vision and blindness also have symbolic significance," she said. "In the spiritual realm, we talk about 'seeing things as they really are' and 'seeing as we are seen,' making the symbolic connection between vision and the ability to perceive the world and ourselves accurately as God does."
The professor shared with the audience her experience of losing much of her central vision as a child after being diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a congenital retinal disorder. Although she is legally blind, she explained the condition has not prevented her from pursuing her interests, teaching or raising a family.
"My vision has changed how I do some things, but hasn't fundamentally changed what I do," she said.
She shared the story of the blind man from John 9.
"Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me..."
She explained that the account invites people to rethink their response to personal trials.
"Do we view our afflictions as opportunities to see God's hand in our lives, his power and mercy and love, or do we just feel afflicted and abandoned by God?" she asked.
Throughout the devotional, she emphasized that Christ's healing miracles demonstrate both divine compassion and divine power, quoting the Savior's ministry among the Nephites in 3 Nephi 17: "I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy."
She also taught that spiritual healing is ultimately more important than physical healing because it leads the blind back to their savior.
"The latter is arguably the greater gift; we come forth in the resurrection physically perfect," she said. "But we can only stand before our God on the last day spiritually whole through the infinite mercy of our Savior."
Before concluding the devotional, she recounted her 20 years as an atheist before returning to faith in God and eventually joining the Church, comparing the period of her life to the blindness she experiences physically.
"During that time, I had pretty good 'peripheral vision,'" she said. "I was a clear, critical thinker with a strong sense of ethics and a desire to live a good life ... but what should have been at the center of my visual field was missing."
She said prayer, personal experiences and reading the Book of Mormon gradually led her back to belief. "Now I clearly see my Savior in the center of my spiritual visual field."
Brook expressed confidence that Christ could restore her physical sight in the future and said the greatest miracle has already occurred through what she described as "his restoration of my spiritual vision."