It’s tough getting old. Not too long ago, I went to an event with my sister. There were people there that I hadn’t seen since I was just a teenager. While we visited, a lady came up to me and asked if my sister was my daughter!
Let me give you a minute for that to sink in.
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I looked carefully at her. I wondered if she had recently gone blind or if perhaps the sun was in her eyes obstructing her vision. I quickly began to assess why she would come to such a flawed assumption. She wasn’t very old. I ruled out dementia.
I really can’t blame her if her eyesight is failing…
I went to see an optometrist yesterday. It wasn’t my first time. My first visit was about 4 years ago and he told me, “When you hit forty, something begins to happen to the eye strength. That’s when a lot of people begin to need glasses.” At the time, he prescribed me glasses for when I spent long hours in front of my computer. Well, yesterday, he “upped” my prescription strength.
I guess I knew it was coming because I’ve noticed lately that my eyes have begun to play tricks on me. The other day, I picked up something with small print and had to hold it further from my face to read it. I’ve noticed I struggle more now to see the fine print on things. Holding the object out and down, I could see the words better and my eyes had a better time focusing. It’s clear my focus is becoming weaker as I age.
Driving home with my new glasses, I sat thinking about the irony of my weakening physical vision and my strengthening spiritual vision.
Just thinking back over the years, my spiritual eyes are growing stronger. How interesting that, although I’m aging physically, the more I study and apply God’s Word’s of truth to my life, the better I see.
Psalm 119:18 Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.
Matthew 6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
Eph 1:16-21 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, …
In a world that screams that up is down and down is up…it’s important to have good eyes to see the truth. In fact, the more I see with my spiritual eyes, the more I realize many are walking around blindly. Our culture boasts a philosophy that doesn’t require much importance on focusing on or seeing the truth. It’s more about feeling or perception. It’s dangerous to walk around in the dark!
We all have to opportunity to strengthen our spiritual eyes by going to God in prayer and studying His Word. He gives us an open invitation. But it’s up to me. It’s up to you.
I trust that my spiritual eyes will continue to grow in strength just as my physical eyes will continue to grow weak. It’s a work of sanctification promised to those who accept Jesus as their Savior.
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
1 Cor. 13:12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
How’s your vision? Spiritual vision that is? Are your eyes being strengthened by gazing upon the truths of God? It’s the only way to truly see.
Nana - Love this….so true…