Seeing Clearly
If you are not familiar with soft contact lenses, they are a wonderful option over wearing glasses for those of us who are vision challenged. However, they are very thin and somewhat fragile meaning they can tear at the most inconvenient times. Recently I traveled out of state and the first morning after my arrival that was exactly what happened. Normally it is not a big deal as I generally carry two sets of additional contacts with me just in case a contact or two is damaged.
After throwing away the remnants my right contact that had torn I checked for the “just in case” contacts in my bag. To my surprise and disappointment there was only one contact in the compartment that was to be holding four. To make matters worse, the one remaining contact was for my left eye.
I was moderately frustrated thinking I have 4 days of work to do on a house we recently purchased and no contacts to wear. I briefly considered asking my husband who was still at home to overnight contacts to me. I quickly concluded that was ridiculous. With a sigh, I told myself, “Surely you can wear your glasses for just a few days.”
Ugh, my glasses. Yes, they were my current tri-focal prescription and I could see really well with them. However, I never really liked the frame color and how they looked on me. In addition, they were heavy and didn’t stay in place well at all. Got them out of their case. I bent the bows a bit in an effort to make them more secure on my face. It had little effect.
Despite my contact dilemma the day move forward. My sister and I gathered our gear and head to the new house. Once at the house we began working on step one of painting – patching the holes and diverts in the walls with spackling. As I made my way around the house, it eventually occurred to me that if I had been wearing my contacts, known as monovision, it would have been a real struggle to see all the tiny slightly hidden pin holes and imperfections on the walls.
A monovision correction is when one eye is corrected for distance and the other eye for nearness. This results in a bit of a blurred spot 2-3 feet out. Even so, I would have never chosen to wear my glasses over contacts unless I was left with no other option.
God had planned this out for me well in advance knowing I’d need to wear my less than flattering too heavy glasses for the work of painting on our new house:
- He’d arranged on other trips for me to deplete my supply of travel contacts.
- He allowed me to forget to replenish my supply which is quite out of character for me.
I have no doubt that His planning was His way of taking care of me. This may seem like a little thing but if I had gotten my way in having a fully stocked bag, I would have struggled with the blurriness and would have been unable to do the work well.
How often do we make choices such that our vision is blurred and we simply ignore the options to see clearly?
- Maybe it’s in a relationships where we are unable to see situations for what they are and choose to blur what we see as it’s easier, more convenient and we think we look better.
- Maybe it’s in judging others not clearly seeing their challenges and difficulties that play into our judgmental perception of their reality.
- Maybe it’s in our own self-examination such that we gloss over the imperfections that affect our behavior and ability to love ourselves and others.
- Maybe it’s in our view of God and trusting Him in every situation knowing we are in His care and He plans for us well in advance.
Whatever it is, God can and does make a way to see things clearly when we let him. He promises us this in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
He tells us again and again to trust him not just when its convenient, not just when we think we can really control the outcome, not when it seems too big or too small for him, but in all ways and in all circumstances. We read in Proverbs 3:5-6 to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”
Although, as I prepared for the weekend of painting, seeing clearly was not my checklist but it was absolutely necessary. Finding God in the everyday areas of our life shows that we can trust God fully knowing that He will show us clearly in all circumstances what we need to see.
JW