Poor vision is hereditary, and, unfortunately, common in my family. Four out of five of us wear glasses or contacts, and the fifth probably will when she gets older. This is a very common problem, of course. If you don’t wear glasses, you know many people who do. Unlike many health-related challenges, vision problems often develop in youth. I began wearing glasses in 4th grade. So, we learn early to live with it, and glasses become an important and constant aspect of our daily lives. Since modern glasses are relatively light and contacts are comfortable, we hardly notice them. The challenge comes whenever we forget or break them. If my children don’t wear their glasses to school, it is difficult for them to see what the teacher is writing on the board. If my wife forgets to wear her glasses to drive, she might miss seeing an important safety detail. And my vision is the worst of all of us. I can barely function at all without corrective lenses.
Did you know that the Bible frequently mentions the importance of correct “spiritual vision?” When we “see” how God “sees,” then we can recognize and resist temptation, walk in righteousness, and be of spiritual service to others. When we have uncorrected spiritual vision, we become a danger to ourselves and those around us, whether we intend to be or not, much like a blind driver on the highway. And like poor physical vision, poor spiritual vision can take hold at a young age.
Consider Matthew 6:22-23, where Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Surely it is very important to see how Jesus sees. Similarly, notice 1 John 2:10-11, “He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” The darkness of sin negatively changes the way we see life, the way we view other people, and the way we view ourselves.
In John 9:39-41, after healing a blind man, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being spiritually blind. They refused to acknowledge their sins, and thus lived in spiritual darkness. In Matthew 7:3-5, Jesus graphically taught His audience to remove the logs out of their own eyes before attempting to help others with their eye specks. These and other passages suggest that we should routinely assess our own spiritual vision. Am I spiritually blind? Am I ignoring my sins? How well do I see?
Revelation 1:7 states that “every eye will see Him,” referring to Jesus’ coming. The question is whether we will focus on Him and His righteousness before He returns. So, before it’s too late, let us fix our eyes upon Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), so we can see how He wants us to see.
David Langley