...With Glasses...

Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? Mark 8: 18

A few days ago I took Dylan to the eye doctor for the first time ever.  He looked so big and matured sitting in that leather chair.  I was so proud.  He obeyed the instructions so well that the ophthalmologist was impressed.  “I can’t keep up with you, buddy!”  She said as Dylan was quickly responding to her promptings.  The difference was amazing.  At the beginning of the eye exam, while the Doctor was asking him to read the letters with the naked eye, Dylan struggled through every one of them.  He hesitated and missed many of them to the point that I began to think he’s forgotten his alphabet. 

After the Doctor put on the “funny glasses,” the change started to become evident.  With each lens she added, Dylan began to recognize the letters and symbols on the wall more easily.  At the end of the exam, the Doctor asked him to take off the “glasses” and try to see the letters.  Then she instructed him to put the “glasses” back on after which she asked him, “is it better with or without glasses?”  Dylan quickly replied, “With glasses.”  The exam was up and it was confirmed, Dylan needed glasses for he has a significant amount of astigmatism. 

When I was alone in the room with Dylan I asked him why he hadn’t ever mentioned that he couldn’t see well.  He said that he didn’t know.  That made me think, He didn’t know he couldn’t see well because that’s all he ever knew.  He didn’t know that there was a whole world of clear vision out there.  He didn’t know what he was missing.

That’s pretty much what life is like for those who don’t know Christ.  The eyes are there, but the vision is blurred.  We need the corrective glasses of the Holy Spirit in order to be able to really see.

“Mama, now we all have glasses in our family!”  Dylan said proudly.  I looked at him and smiled, thinking that the same way, Our Father in Heaven gives each of his adopted children the Holy Spirit to clear up the vision of our awareness and discernment. 

“Are we getting them now?”  Dylan asked with excitement.  I had a hard time explaining to him that he wasn’t getting them just yet.  He felt crushed, for once we’ve experience clear vision, we don’t want to go back to fuzzy.

“Dylan, now you have to remember that when you get them, you are going to have to be very careful with those glasses, OK?”  I said to him, thinking of my own carelessness.  I know, however, that now that he’s realized what true clarity really means, though he might occasionally misplace them, he won’t really lose his glasses.  The irresistible grace of seeing will always bring him back until he is found and he can once again see. 

May the Lord help us remember to put on our Holy Spirit glasses every time we need to discern the truth.