Tip of My Iceberg

I’ve needed corrective lenses since the fifth grade when I borrowed Luke Gardiner’s glasses all year. Sitting next to me he was more than willing to share, and for some reason, I refused to admit I needed help seeing the board. Toward the end of May of that year, the teacher caught me passing Luke’s glasses back to him. I went home with a note that said I needed my eyes checked.

I couldn’t depend on Luke forever.

My new glasses allowed me to see what I’d missed. I had no idea lights at night were a point of brightness and not a hazy puddle of light. I saw blades of grass individually, not as a wash of green.

Clarity was an amazing gift.

I graduated to contacts when I got to high school. For a while, I wore the kind I could sleep in for several weeks. It was a new experience to be able to get up in the middle of the night and be able to see instead of stumbling into furniture.

Then I moved to soft lenses, but I was too rough on them. Kept tearing the little guys.

The eye doctor put me in rigid gas permeable contacts. Easier to pop out and not so easy to break.

I’ve worn them for years, and because they’re sturdier, I forget I need to get new ones. When my eyes start protesting when I put them in, I make an appointment for a check-up.

My eye doctor is great, but he did reprimand me for going three years without a check-up.

Then he fitted me for a new pair of lenses.

I know it takes a bit to get new lenses to settle well. I struggled to drive home, but it was a familiar route, so I wasn’t bothered.

Next day? Bothered.

As I drove to work, I realized I wasn’t able to see street signs as easily as I had previously. License plates were impossible to read.

I’d lost my distance vision.

Driving wasn’t a problem if I knew the route. But new streets, new destinations were more than I could handle.

Not the safest way to drive.

I went back to the eye doctor and found the fit on my new lenses wasn’t right.

My lenses were replaced, but the two weeks I wore the wrong ones made me aware of how desperately I trust my sight.

What am I not seeing clearly?

We all look through lenses shaped by our stories. Where we came from. What we learned to value, how we learned to love.

What we learned to not appreciate.

We rarely see clearly. Seeing past our present assumptions about what’s important takes work. Seeing beyond our fears is hard.

God clears our vision with His truth.

He’s made us as we are. In His image. Beautiful in His eyes. He sees us clearly–and loves us perfectly.

If we let Him, He can shape our vision by shaping the values and beliefs of our hearts.

Do you know what you’re not seeing clearly?