Seeing Clearly

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe…”*

I was only twelve years old when I heard those fateful words, “She’s

nearsighted.” After repeatedly asking my parents the score at football games, they had finally decided to take me in to have my eyes checked. 

“Just look at the scoreboard,” they’d tell me. But I could hardly see the scoreboard let alone the score! Squinting at the chalkboard in school was another telltale sign that glasses were needed.

Wearing glasses was hard on my preteen self-image though. They stayed in their case most of the time unless I was forced to wear them. Unfortunately, the

nearsightedness progressed with the years until it reached the point where everything was blurry, no matter if it was far away or close up.

During my sophomore year in high school, mom and dad stretched their budget which barely covered month to month expenses for our family of seven, to buy contact lenses for me. Contacts were great—I could even see the leaves on the trees!  And it was wonderful to be rid of those thick lensed glasses, at least for part of the day.

The downside was that they were much easier to lose! I learned the hard way that they shouldn’t be worn in the water, when one of them floated out of my eye in the pool during swim practice. Some of the girls on the team stayed with me after practice, swimming underwater and searching the depths of the pool for the light blue contact. But it was a futile search.

 Breaking the news to my parents was difficult. They got insurance after that blunder to help cover the cost of future replacement sets, which turned out to be a good decision. Even a sneeze was enough to either eject the contact or send it up to the back of my eyeball. Trying to relocate it to the right position was not pleasant!

 Later in life, I remember fervently praying for a healing of my eyesight, even to the point of not wearing glasses for a few days in expectation of that healing. But it didn’t take long to realize that I couldn’t function without them and to accept the fact that God had provided a way for me to see. I just needed to cooperate!

When I was fifty-one years old, it was discovered that cataracts had grown over the lenses of both eyes. Because the cataracts were clear, they had gone undetected for many years. In two different surgeries, each of the old lenses was replaced with a new lens, one that would help me see long distances.

The cataract surgery made an amazing difference. No more worrying about lost contacts or having to get progressively stronger prescriptions for my glasses. Now there was only a need for glasses while reading and a light prescription for distance due to astigmatism.

During my regular eye exam last week, the doctor said something that impacted me greatly.

 “I can tell that you are,” and then he corrected himself, “or used to be,

 nearsighted.” Apparently, nearsightedness puts a strain on the optic nerve, causing it to be distorted at the junction point with the back of the eyeball, something that he detected during the exam.

 His words almost took my breath away. “Used to be

nearsighted.”  I used to be nearsighted but not anymore? Now that was a new thought!

The implanted lenses had corrected that problem so that my vision was nearly normal in both eyes. But I never thought of being nearsighted as a thing of the past until I sat in that exam chair and heard the doctor’s words.

It felt wonderful to let go of something that had been part of a negative self-image for most of my life. Seeing clearly again was a great answer to prayer.  But perhaps something far more important took place in my heart during those long years of blurred vision—coming to know that God loved me personally and being drawn into an ever-closer relationship with Him, through faith in Jesus. Praise the Lord!

“Glimpses”

We see with our eyes,

comprehend with our minds

and know…with our hearts (JLL 4-5-22)

*Ephesians 1; 18-19a NIV