Wednesday, July 7, 2021

“Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” (Matthew 6: 22 – 23, The Message Bible)

                 According to my eye doctor I have very healthy eyes. I had my annual eye examination yesterday. My mom had both glaucoma and macular degeneration, so I like to make sure that my eyes are not inheriting those weaknesses. I do have the beginnings of cataracts but only just and it has been that way for the last few years. No change. So, I get to continue to view the world through these hazel orbs.

                The classic line from Proverbs is “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29: 18 King James Version) It reads the best in the KJV as most of the other translations or paraphrases while they may be more accurate, they lack the same punch. Although, as usual, The Message Bible makes you think: “If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” Perhaps this is what Jesus had mind when he was pushing back at the pharisees: “They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” (Matthew 15: 14, New Living Translation)

                Just as it is important to maintain our physical vision, so we should nourish and sustain our spiritual vision. I don’t mean looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses. But I do mean seeing the world more through Christ-coloured glasses. Look at the world around us and see its beauty, depth, purpose and recognize the magnificence of all of God’s creation. It is to see the beauty of each and every person. It is to see the work of the handiwork God throughout the world, even in the mundane routines of what the day holds for each of us.

                “He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.” (Deuteronomy 10:21, NLT)

                Moreover, it is to take the blinders off that which judges, condemns, belittles, demeans, criticizes, sneers at and sees only what they want to see. Some see the world as black and white and miss out of the extravaganza of all that the world offers through the variety of peoples, languages, cultures and customs. Some see the world through the lenses of anger, bitterness, resentment, hatred, greed, pride, racism and fear. Others shut their eyes to injustice, inequality, poverty, homelessness, abuse, violence.

                “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” (Matthew 7:3, NLT)

                Without good vision we risk perishing. But our text invites us to open our inner eyes to the goodness that God offers, to be able to observe the example of Jesus and keep our “feet” safely on the Way, staying out of the ditches.  Focus in on the love and hope which walking with Christ reveals to us.

                It is up to each of us to conduct our own personal spiritual-eyes’ examination, to test our spiritual perceptions, observations and world-views and use the lenses of Christ-values to correct our vision where need-be or reveal to us the fullness of a life which the Lord sees for each of us.

                I can see you; can you see me?

 

Dale