Our daughter had her eyes checked recently.  We found she will need glasses to correct her vision.  Gone is the social stigma attached to wearing glasses; they’re cool now.  “I got turquoise frames that you can see through Dad” she excitedly told me when she came home from the appointment.  “So – you’re not afraid of having your eyes checked anymore” I asked.  ‘No!” She said “Because now, I’ll look really smart and be able to see things clearly.”  I agreed both of those are good things.

The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  That’s an interesting statement from a man who history has told us had significantly impaired eyesight.  Paul had to get nose to nose with a mirror to be able to see his reflection with limited clarity, but it wasn’t his own reflection he was writing about.  Paul longed to see and know his Heavenly Father’s image.  This was put into perspective for me when I learned how blurry my daughter’s vision was.  She told me for her to see my eyes clearly, she had to be close to me.

Some people have uncorrected twenty-twenty vision and still don’t see things clearly; the word “see” being used here as it pertains to understanding.  Sometimes, one needs to back away from something to get things to come into focus.  In other situations, one needs to “zoom in” and get close to see or understand the details.  However, in any case, Paul clearly made the point knowledge is crucial.  A friend of mine recently bought a new Lincoln MKX Crossover.  Although the car was able to learn his driving habits and adjust to him, he had to spend a couple of weeks studying the owner’s manual to be able to use the “hands free” mobile phone, climate controls and sophisticated audio system.  The car knew HIM, but HE didn’t know the car.  It became obvious he had to change the driving habits he had become accustomed to with his old car.

I’ve been listening to the song “Spirit of the Living God” by Meredith Andrews.  She sings about how the Holy Spirit changes us.  A verse in the song has seized my focused attention.  Andrews sings “Cause when you speak, when you move, when you do what only you can do, it changes us, it changes what we see and what we seek.” Have you ever glimpsed at something, and then looked again, but with a longer gaze, and seen something completely different from what you saw at first?  What changed?  Your vision changed because of closer study.  Did your new understanding cause you to change your mind or your actions?

We can travel down life’s road and not clearly see the passing scenery or the road signs before us.  Speed, distractions, bad directions and stubborn self-reliance can all combine to take us to the wrong destination, far from where we want to be.  The good news is, you can never be too far away for God to see you and guide you to Himself using the roadmap He created for your life.  The closer you get to Him, the better your vision and the surer your path will become.

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