They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. Psalm 115:5
That is what the optical tech asked me as she covered my right eye with a black spoon-like instrument.
I paused. I couldn’t believe what my left eye was NOT seeing! Even the top letters of the eye chart were nothing more than blurred, squiggly lines. My heart beat in my ears. I held my breath and tried to focus but it didn’t work. My EYE DIDN’T WORK!
The response hung on my tonsils. I swallowed and forced it out between my teeth. “No, I don’t see. I can’t see. What’s happening?”
She wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go through the rest of the exam, then the ophthalmologist can see you. She’ll figure it out.”
I had come to get new glasses. For months my eyes felt tired and strained. I had ocular migraines. Floaters. I had been told that after major spinal fusion that was common and would most likely settle down. But it hadn’t so I went to the optometrist. It had, after all, been four years since I had my eyes checked. I prepared myself for the cost of new glasses. Little did I know my left eye wasn’t functioning so my dominant right eye had been doing all the work. Turns out I had a large hole in my macular (the back of the retina that captures what the eye lens projects) and I needed surgery to fix it. When I do, I will need to bow my head for days on end to help stimulate the healing process.
So, yes I found God in the midst of my shock and panic. Well, no pun intended, it actually came to me several days later in hindsight after my brain absorbed the news and my emotions settled.
How often do we think we see, yet our eyes have been skewed by the world? Our experiences cloud our vision, and things can get out of whack. So much so that it affects what we actually observe. It is well documented that if you ask five witnesses to describe a crime scene, they will vary in their responses.
God in His gracious mercy gave us two eyes, one dominant. It is the same with our faith eyes. One may have been damaged by the ways of the world, but our faith can give us dominance to see things the way God does…if we let it. As the contemporary hymn states, we need to pray for God to open the eyes of our hearts.
The amazing thing is that the faltered spiritual eye is fixable, just as my left eye is–all we need to do let the Great Physician work in our lives and bow our heads for a while. In time, we will see more clearly through the loving eyes of the eternal Father. The healing may take quite some time, but He is patient, and so must we agree to be as well.
Let’s see how it goes!
Where Did You Find God Today? 