God's Gift to Milton

K S RAM





Most of us hop between two agendas: one that God has set for us, and another that we've set for ourselves. It is one thing to disbelieve in God and to assume complete charge of your life. It is quite another to believe in God, to be keen to do your best in His service. It requires strength of character and vision to overcome adversities and find the divine grace that lies beyond. This kind is rare. John Milton, the English poet, is an example of this kind.Milton was highly talented.He had enormous faith in God.And he had a noble ambition to create a great epic. Even as he was exploring possible subjects, Milton became blind. He did not know how he should respond to this sudden misfortune.He documented the mental conflict and its resolution in a sonnet, On His Blindness.
The question that tormented him was, now that he had been rendered blind, was he still required to vindicate the talent he was born with? In his cryptic style, the question Milton asks in the sonnet is, “Does God exact day labour, light denied?“ Milton considers the issue from a regal perspective.God is the Supreme King. We are all His servants. The servant standing in attention at the door is serving God as well as the prime minister or the general. Hence Milton's great realisation, “They also serve who simply stand and wait.“
The fact that Milton could successfully write his immortal epic Paradise Lost despite his handicap confirms that with God's grace, the challenged can cross mountains, the mute sing and the blind see.