It was 1974, and I was a child in an intimidating lobby of a doctor’s office. Though so long ago, I can clearly remember standing in front of a fish tank in the lobby looking through my one eye at the colored little fish darting amidst the bubbles in the water. A few days before, I had endured a surgery to correct one of my eyes which had been crossed since birth and I was now with my mom, waiting for my follow up visit. The doctor prescribed that I wear a patch over my good eye so that the surgically repaired eye could develop strength by working double-time. Fewer things are cooler to a four-year-old boy than to look like a pirate so I was cool with being Captain Patch Preschooler for a few weeks. Eventually, both eyes began to work in tandem with one another and my sight normalized. Flash forward to three decades later, and I again encountered trouble with my vision. Eventually, I found myself in another opthamologist’s office receiving corrective eye surgery as an adult. The results were amazing and I wondered afterward why I had gone so long before getting my sight corrected. There is something invigorating about seeing things as they truly are. It was only post-surgery that I understood how long my vision had been out of whack. Occasionally, we have to experience a similar event with our spiritual eyes, and there is nobody more suited for correcting your vision than the Great Physician.
“Then Jesus laid his hands on His eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” – Mark 8:25
We need to face the fact that our spiritual vision can become clouded on a regular basis. It is true that we don’t always perceive things accurately, and we can encounter some pretty intense repercussions when we go blindly stumbling about for long periods of time. We can misinterpret people and view them as our chief problems in life. Circumstances may appear overwhelming to us and cloud our discernment of God working on our behalf. Because we give our focus to lesser things, the grandeur of God can be diminished, and we will consequently live for unworthy things. Pathways, pursuits and purposes are defined in us by what owns our vision…and we often need to investigate whether or not we are still looking to God for the appointed path of life.
Jesus healed blind people on more than one occasion and He never used the same method twice. Each time He healed the blind, it seemed that He employed a mode of healing that was tailor-made for that specific individual. I would suggest that He still does the same thing today when He desires to reorient our spiritual eyes. God knows how to get my attention so that I will see what He wants me to see. I’m kind of the-brick-in-the-forehead guy who occasionally needs a circumstantial slap to the head to get me to focus. The method He employs in your life for this purpose is different than what He uses for me. You may be someone He whispers gently to – over and over – until you finally meet His gaze and are stilled enough to hear Him redirect your attention. Others among us require great encouragement and affirmation so that they will not fear when God takes away their blurred vision and shows them the challenge He has appointed for them. His ways are varied but His desire is singular: He wants you to see what He sees when it is essential that you see it.
Here’s my question for all of us: What’s He showing you these days? Maybe something about yourself? Something about a new opportunity? Is He seeking to give you healthy perspective on your past? Has He redirected your gaze on the future…or eternity? If things are moving in patterns that are abnormal for you – faster, more intense, agonizingly slow, suffocating or exhilarating – could it be that the Father is adjusting your vision, tightening your focus, opening your spiritual eyes to discern His activity? He loves to lead us in ways that involve us locking our eyes with His. He once told His people, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with my eye.” – Psalm 32:8
Did you get that? He says that He guides us with His eye. We should endeavor for an eye-to-eye intimacy with Him that results in our focus moving onto what He gazes upon. Friends, He is always wanting to get in our face – not in a confrontational sense, but in that manner that we breathe in what He breathes out and our eyes are fixed on His.
My prayer for us all today is that we see what He sees. That will require us moving in a little closer to Him. That is where we behold the very best that He has to offer.