"Eyes to See"

At age six, in first grade, I was prescribed with my first pair of glasses.  I had been unable to read the blackboard at school, and up close reading was also blurry.  “Astigmatism” was the diagnosis.  I went merrily along for several years, wearing glasses at school, and mostly going without them everywhere else.

            But then something very disturbing happened. At age 13, I started swinging and missing at pitch after pitch in baseball.  I had always been a decent hitter. Never hit a homerun, but almost always put the ball in play. But I must have struck out every at bat for two or three games.  Then my dad suggested, “Put on your glasses,” and all of a sudden I could hit again.

            But I was a catcher, and on one occasion I was chasing a popup, threw off my mask, and my glasses fell off at the same time.  Of course, I stepped right on them before catching the pop fly.  For the rest of the season I wore the glasses to hit, but not in the field.  It was a struggle. By this time I needed them all the time.

            Ah, the wonders of medicine.  Late that summer I began to wear contact lenses.  They were the greatest thing I’d ever encountered.  I wore contacts for the next 28 years, until I faced another dilemma.  Allergies required that I take antihistamines, but these dried out my eyes, making the contacts very uncomfortable. So, once again I went to glasses full time, and in short order, bifocals. 

            I lived with that for several years, but then I saved up my money for laser eye surgery.  From a personal standpoint it was the best gift I’ve ever given to myself.  They even set one eye for reading and the other for distance. Somehow my eyes and my brain adjusted to that immediately. 

            I remember looking across the room and reading the numbers on the clock for the first time since kindergarten.  It was amazing.  And it still is.

            I am grateful for the advances in medicine that have given me the ability to see as well as I do today. But I’m even more grateful to the Lord who created the eye, and then the brain that has guided doctors and inventors in making these advances.  It is so very true. “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord.”  He can be seen in so many ways, but one must exercise the eyes of faith.

            This is not “blind faith,” as some would call it.  Romans 1 tells us that there is more than enough evidence to see God at work if you will only look.  “Dear God. Give us eyes to see,” is my prayer.