I’m not blind, but I’ve experienced “sight” twice in my life that I feel compelled to share.
The first was when I was taken to the doctor for an eye exam in the 4th grade. I had no idea I couldn’t see the chalkboard; it was my teacher who told my Mom that I was squinting to see it. When it was clear that I could barely read the eye chart at the doctor’s office, we went to get a pair of glasses.
I’ll never forget sitting in the chair at the optometrist. Before he came in, I looked into the holes of the giant machine that he would use to ask #1 or #2, #1, or #2. (Anyone who’s been to the eye doctor knows all too well this process, it’s kind of comical).
Anyways, I took a peek and I remember telling my mom, “Wow!!! There’s a dog on that wall over there!” I think she said something like, “Yes, that’s a picture of a dog, what’s the big deal?” And I replied something like, “But…but…it’s DIFFERENT when I look through this thing. It’s like it’s magic! I can see the dog! I can see him!”
Having never had a need for glasses, she couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. I was trying to tell her that I could see every DETAIL of this dog. I will NEVER forget that dog. The picture is ingrained in my memory forever and the first image I saw clearly. I recall thinking this machine that I was looking through must have been magic. I honestly didn’t understand the concept of SEEING CLEARLY.
After the appointment we went to LensCrafters to get my glasses. I remember picking out pink frames, thinking they were the “cutest” looking glasses, although I was dreading wearing them. Glasses, at age 9, were not “cool.”
“Do you see what I see?”
I will never forget walking out of LensCrafters to the car. I recall it was fall and the leaves were starting to change color.
Imagine seeing leaves for the first time. I know it’s hard to picture seeing something that you see every day but just imagine never having seen the leaves on a tree.
I could SEE! I could see every single leaf on the trees that we were walking past! And the concrete – I could see that too!
I was literally looking down at my feet walking on the sidewalk and noting to my mother, “I can see!! I can see the sidewalk!! I can see the leaves!!! Do you see them? Do you see that?”
I wish I could remember her reaction. I wish I could ask her if she remembers that day that I got my sight. But most of all, I WISH I could have every person I know experience this newfound sight. It’s like being born again. It’s like realizing you are alive when this whole time before, you had been dead.
I recently came across a video from a popular speaker named Nicky Gumbel, and he discusses how he got glasses as an adult and HIS reaction is very similar to mine. (Fast forward to 12:30 to SEE what I mean.)
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
I mentioned I gained sight twice in my life. The most recent time I found sight had nothing to do with a new pair of glasses. It has everything to do with looking at life through a different lens, a different perspective.
This “secondary” sight occurred when I read Theology of the Body for Beginners just 8 months ago. I knew something was happening to me as I read this book and took notes on it, which I have NEVER done while reading any book as an adult. I felt compelled to reflect on these words this man Christopher West, was writing. It was another experience of saying to myself, and sometimes to others, “Wow, NOW, I can see! I see things the way they REALLY are! THIS, this is what is truth!”
It was a few months later in June that “the scales fell off my eyes.” I had heard this expression before but never truly understood it until it actually happened to me. This experience took place during a week-long course through Theology of the Body Institute.. I recall telling myself and others, “I cannot un-see what I just saw. I can’t un-hear what I just heard. I will never be the same person I once was. I can see again!”
Where I once thought I saw love, I see lust.
Where I once saw truth, I now see the lies.
Where I once saw friendship, I now see possession.
Where I once saw harmless entertainment, I now see abuse.
Where I once saw freedom, I now see impurity.
But don’t get depressed and discouraged! There’s Good News to share:
Where I once saw rules, I now see freedom.
Where I once saw archaic teaching, I now see beautiful meaning.
Where I once saw restriction, I see chastity.
Where I once saw punishment, I now see blessings.
Where I saw an aged, celibate, old-fashioned man in Rome, I now see a Saint that I want to embrace in heaven and thank him for helping me to see.
Thank you God for my sight. I never want to be blind again.
Fitting In Faith 