Even though he has lost his eyesight, Christian theologian J.I. Packer can still see better than most people who are blessed with the gift of sight.
His blindness will cost Packer, 89, his speaking and writing ministry. But the devout Christian says, "God knows what He's doing."
He has taken on an optimistic stance regarding his loss of eyesight.
"God knows what he's up to," the author of "Knowing God" told The Gospel Coalition. "And I've had enough experiences of his goodness in all sorts of ways not to have any doubt about the present circumstances. Some good, something for his glory, is going to come out of it."
He then cited the book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible to help people better understand what he is going through right now.
"The author of Ecclesiastes has taught me that it is folly to suppose that you can plan life and master it, and you will get hurt if you try," he explained. "You must acknowledge the sovereignty of God and leave the wisdom to Him."
It also helps Packer come to terms with his condition since he is nearing 90. He expects that his health conditions would only get worse as time passes by, but Packer has resigned himself to the fact that "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away."
What Packer would like to focus on instead is how richly God has blessed him and his wife Kit throughout their lives. "God has been very good to us, and none of us has been struck as so many people of our age by any form of dementia," he said. "We're both blessedly free of that in a way that other folks of our age known to us are not. When you're preserved from something other people actually have to work their way through, you recognise that this is a mercy and are thankful."
Aside from "Knowing God," Packer is also the author of "Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God." He defended the biblical view of marriage, and signed the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy back in 1978 which rebuked liberal interpretations of Scripture.
When his denomination, the Anglican Church of Canada, embraced same-sex marriage back in 2002, Packer left it and supported the more conservative Anglican Church in North America.
