I Exam

When I was in elementary school in Clinton, Minnesota, in Mrs. DeGroet’s second grade class, I couldn’t see the blackboard.  So Mrs. D. moved me to the front row and she told my parents.

My parents then took me to a optometrist friend of theirs who lived in Montevideo, Minnesota (a town from which we had moved just a few years earlier) who told them I needed glasses.  This was no surprise.

Being the fashion aficionado that I was at 7, I chose the ultra cool rosewood colored aviator frames and I was lookin’ fine!

But, let’s back up a little;  beings’ (this a word that my father uses.  I think this is how you spell it, although he always pronounces it “beans”) this was my first experience at the eye doctor, I remember it very well.  As my little self sat in the big chair, Roger, the doctor, put this awkward looking contraption in front of my face.  It had lots of little circles of lenses surrounding each eyehole and I was supposed to look through it, so look through it I did.  Those of you with glasses know what I am talking about. 

As I looked through the monster face, Roger asked me which lens looked better; 1 or 2; 3 or 4?  He did this over and over, again and again with lots of different lens combinations as I peered through at an alphabet chart on the wall.  It all seemed very strange to me.

When I was done with this clear and cloudy game, and when Roger seemed satisfied with my answers, I got to go out to the “glasses room” and try on mom-styles, librarian-styles, Elton John-styles, and finally, my chosen aviators.  But since the whole ‘Pearl Vision Express’ idea was not a reality yet, I had to leave my adorable frames there until my lenses arrived a few weeks later.  I was crushed since I thought I looked at least 9 in my new specs and I wanted to wear them home.

When the lenses did arrive to the Optometrist's, and when they were placed into my chosen frames, Mom and Dad and I took another trip to Montevideo to pick them up. I was thrilled!

On the car ride home in my new glasses, I could see clearly! I had no idea that I had not been seeing well, so when I put these beauties on and saw individual blades of grass and trees made up of many leaves—not just a big green mass, I was totally awed!  In my excitement, I talked all the way home about all the things I was now “seeing”.  My world had totally changed and I understood it so much better.

I tell you this long drawn out story to illustrate a point:

Sometimes I think that we are so used to seeing things the way that the world sees them—the way that the Devil warps them with his lens--that we aren’t even aware that our vision is clouded.  It is only when we go to the Word of God and put on His “glasses” of Truth and Beauty that we can see the way we ought to live.  When we see our situation through Satan’s lens, circumstances at times seem hopeless and unbearable.  But when viewed through the lens of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we see hope and the opportunity of growing to be more like Him through our trials.

Sometimes, I also think that we need to do little ‘vision’ tests with ourselves to make sure our ‘prescription’ is still up to date.  We need to ask ourselves, “Which kind of music helps me think more lovely things?  1 or 2?  “Are the thoughts going through my brain right now wholesome (3) or unwholesome (4)?  Do the people I spend my time with make God look clearer or foggier? 

When we spend time in the presence of the Lord, our vision becomes His vision and we begin to see things more and more clearly—things we never saw before!  The renewed mind that God promises us becomes the filter through which we see everything.  Then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good and pleasing and perfect will. 

And then we will really be lookin’ FINE!

 

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Matthew 6:22-23