Mark 8:25  – Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again. He looked with his eyes wide open, his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly.

Gratitude Day 736

Word to wise: please do not assume everyone sees clearly. Because we don’t.

Or I didn’t. Until I could once again.

Here’s the story. A few weeks ago, I had a little mishap of an accident at our farm. I ended up with two black-and-blue-eyes, a goose egg on my forehead and broken glasses. I’ll spare you the details other than the beef heifer won, and I lost.

While my ego was humbled, the rest of me was OK … except my glasses. When I found one bow detached from the rest of the frames, I quickly decided it was not worth trying to find the rest of the glasses. I was confident they were a hot mess.

At the time, I was not too worried. I had an older spare pair at home and could make them work for the time being. It wasn’t until I was home, and I slipped the old glasses on that I remembered this prescription had been updated twice since I last wore these glasses. The optometrist said both times the changes were slight. But add them together, and well, it was a bit more of change than I expected.

As soon as I put the old glasses on, my eyes tried to figure out where to go. They are progressive lenses, meaning there is not a clear line where the lenses go from far vision to close vision. It just happens gradually.  Normally, a person’s eyes adjust to the lenses after wearing them for a bit. But I quickly discovered that the reading part of these glasses was different from the broken pair at the farm.

My eyes had changed more than I realized.

I found myself accommodating the different prescription. When something became too hard to read, I’d remove my glasses, move the item closer to my eyes and read it this way. Yes, I could still drive, use my computer and do other things; but everything was just a bit more blurry and not as clear.

I lived with these old glasses a couple weeks until I found time to get some new ones ordered. One evening, Hubby Rick and I had a bit of time, so we went to pick up my new glasses. When I ordered them, I splurged and ordered two pairs. If one broke, I wanted a back-up pair. I’d had enough seeing everything blurry.

When the woman at the store handed me my new glasses, I was shocked. Everything was so much clearer.

It. Was. Amazing.

I had forgotten how clear life could be with the proper glasses’ prescription.

I do not have to remove my glasses to read something small. The haze on the old lenses was not present on my new glasses. They didn’t slide all over my face and stayed in place.

It. Was. Amazing.

I had forgotten how clearly things could look. How much difference the right prescription would make. I could see things far away and up close.

I felt like a new woman.

All because of a pair of new glasses.

It felt like it had been years since I had seen things that clearly. And now, I was.

I have worn glasses since I was about 5-years-old. Actually, I wore contacts for decades. A few years ago, I stopped wearing them because the contacts irritated my eyes. I went back to wearing glasses fulltime. It was also the same time period that I needed readers. I not only needed assistance with distance, but I now also needed help reading things close.

Those new prescriptions? It was amazing how much more I could see of, well, everything.

This led me to think of all the people who are blind or have an eye disease that is not fixable or treatable. People who go through life only seeing partially. I have more compassion for all they miss out on.

Imagine being the man who has been blind his entire life and whose sight is healed by Jesus. He went from seeing nothing … to seeing everything.

It would have been so amazing.

Sight is one of those things that is difficult to appreciate until you do not fully have it. It’s impossible to appreciate how much difference the right corrective lenses will make until they are perched on your nose and allowing you to see so much more. Details flooded my sight, and I could pick up little details.

Jesus did not have to heal the blind man’s sight. But he did. There was a little message with the healing: Seeing clearly makes a difference. Jesus wanted this man to experience clear vision during his lifetime. And he gave him this gift.

Sometimes, I wish I could put my new glasses up next to something and be confident and sure that I am making the right choices. Having a clearer vision about everything helps us see the world as it is. We capture details we might otherwise miss. We have a broader base on which to confirm everything within our sight. Clarity is not over-rated.

Too often, I feel like I am journeying through life with the fuzzy glasses: I know there is more than what I can see but I’m just not sure what it is. I lack the clarity I yearn for. I keep looking for more and sometimes I just miss it.

Letting Jesus be our optometrist can help. He sees more than we will ever see. His vantage point is so much different than ours.

While I will never be able to see all the Jesus can, it’s OK. I can enlist Jesus to help me with my daily life, which, ultimately, gives me more clarity. It helps me appreciate that there IS someone who sees more than I do. And this, my friends, is a very good thing.  

For being able to see more clearly, I am grateful.

Blessings –

Dianne

Dear God – sometimes, we do not know what we are missing or cannot see until we CAN see. Through Your eyes, may I see more clearly and with less fuzziness. Thank you for being my eyes when I cannot see clearly. Amen.

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