Things That Are Seen

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

 (2 Corinthians 4:18)

“Blind? I could be blind?” It wasn’t the news my parents and I expected to hear from the ophthalmologist at Wills’ Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. I was a freshman in college, studying to become a teacher. 

But my vision was not being cooperative. I’d worn glasses since I was six, but still  walked into walls and fell down steps. During Christmas break, I’d  backed my dad’s car into a telephone pole I just didn’t see.  

At all. 

At nineteen, I needed to change my perspective. I was diagnosed with Keratoconus, a rare disease of the corneas that could lead to distorted vision, double and triple images, and the need for transplants. Oh, and the possibility of blindness.

Have you ever been faced with news that made you rethink the path you were on?

That made you question the way you viewed your life and the world around you?

That made you wary of what your eyes told you?

In the more than forty years since that diagnosis, I’ve learned that I do not always see things for what they are, but I can always trust God for who  he is. My own corneas were temporary, but donor corneas have allowed me to have sufficient vision to teach. 

I’ve managed to find the humor in my distorted view of the world that is, like my corneas, transient. A gray sweatshirt may look like a cat, a leaf may resemble a mouse, and a mailbox may appear as the image of a man. I keep my eyes on God, who looks not on our outward appearance, but into our hearts. 

Is there something temporary in your life that is obscuring your vision of the eternal God?

Trust him to make your own focus clear.