When Faith Becomes Real

Most of us know the name Helen Keller. What is sometimes forgotten is the moment when her world first opened.

As a small child, Helen Keller lost both her sight and her hearing. Without language, she lived in a kind of silent isolation. Her family loved her deeply, but they could not reach her. Words had no meaning yet. The world around her was a blur of sensations without names.

Then a young teacher named Annie Sullivan entered her life.

Sullivan began patiently tracing letters into Helen’s palm with her finger. She would spell a word—doll—and then place a doll into the child’s hands. Again and again she repeated the process: word, object… word, object.

At first it meant nothing.

Then one day they stood beside a water pump. Annie Sullivan placed Helen’s hand under the flowing water and slowly spelled into her palm the letters W-A-T-E-R.

Suddenly something changed.

Helen…