One of my most vivid childhood memories is getting glasses for the first time. I was 7 years old, and it was in the fall. I remembering sitting down in the big chair at the eye doctor’s office to begin the vision test.
After being instructed to “read the smallest letters I could see” at the other end of the room, I paused awhile and quietly said, “I can’t see ANY letters.” I was blind as a bat. My mom cried—she felt so bad…
When it was time for us to pick up my glasses, the colors of the leaves had reached their full autumn peak. I distinctly remember walking outside for the first time with my new glasses, and looking up at a tree. My jaw dropped.
Before glasses, trees were just blurry clouds of one or two colors, like big sticks of cotton candy. But WITH glasses, I could see each individual leaf—it was like hundreds of colors dancing all at once. I had never seen anything like it before.
After walking by countless trees my whole life, I never knew that’s what a tree ACTUALLY looked like.
Before I decided to follow Jesus, I was blind as a bat—oblivious to what life COULD be like. I was relatively happy (or so I thought). But in retrospect, I was blind to who I was, what my purpose was, and how much God the Father loved me. I believed in God, Jesus, and Heaven, but I didn’t really do anything about that belief. It was more of a polite acknowledgement.
I trusted every feeling I had and went with my gut on everything. I only really prayed when things were bad. I gave in to sin and temptation as much as I wanted, oftentimes with no repentance. I had a successful career, so I allowed that to define me and give me pride.
I had family, money, health, beauty. But a part of me still felt void—like an itch I couldn’t quite scratch. I desperately tried filling that void myself in a number of ways. But instead of filling it, I just made it bigger until I felt like nothing but the void itself.
It was at that point that God came in and rescued me. I’m sure it was hard on Him to wait and watch me fall, but His timing was perfect (as always). He happily opened my eyes, and put on the glasses. And the first thing I saw was how much He loved me. If seeing God’s unfailing love for you hasn’t made you cry, then you haven’t seen it yet. You either don’t have the glasses on, or you do but something is fogging them up.
With this new vision, I started to see the truth about who God is and who I am. I saw beauty all around me that I never knew was there.
With this new vision, my heart began to change. I started loving others more because I could see God’s love for them, too.
With this new vision, I started loving myself, but with humility instead of pride.
And all of this is just the beginning. Once you see through those glasses, there’s no way you’d go back to life without them. After all, I didn’t walk out the eye doctor’s office, see those beautiful leaves, and then decide to throw away my new glasses.
And remember that void I was talking about? That void that always seemed to be there no matter what I did? That void finally became filled with nothing but peace and love from God, overflowing the void like a tidal wave into the rest of my soul. Reaching one end and then going back toward the other, it’s like a wave of peace and love that flows back and forth, perpetually. It never…stops…flowing. God’s living water at my core.
Although I couldn’t see the leaves on the trees before glasses, they were there! I just needed help seeing them.
If you want to know how to see the leaves, the answer is Jesus. HE is the lens that will give you new vision.
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.”
Purple Petunia 