With New Eyes

Growing up without wearing glasses, I do remember some friends in early elementary school who wore them—Evelyn, Roger, Freddie, and Freida, to recall a few. No one in my immediate family wore glasses, but when I was ten years old, I remember my mother getting her first pair for reading purposes.

I was aghast when I realized around the age of 40, that my eyes were no longer seeing reading material as clearly as they once did. I’m aging! Oh, no! First, I bought the glasses readily available in stores that offered a wide variety of reading strengths. These I perched on the end of my nose for reading events, but then a quick “look over the top of my glasses” would give me the distance perspective I needed. A quick fix that worked for me.

Eventually, my distance vision was not so clear, and when I was in my mid-to-late 40s, I went to an optometrist and purchased my first prescription glasses. Little by little, not only did my close-up vision become less clear, but my distance vision declined and became fuzzier, too.

About 20 years later, I was told I had the beginnings of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) where the central vision can disappear, leaving one with only peripheral eyesight. I really didn’t take the AMD diagnosis seriously for some years, but as it progressed, albeit slowly, fear began to intrude in my thinking. Eventually I noticed that my eyesight was dimming, and straight lines were somewhat curvy. But all in all, I was still able to navigate quite well.

Retired from full-time work and moving near 3ABN, the cataracts I’d had for many years, suddenly became progressively worse in a short period of time. Both eyes were candidates for surgery.

The day came for the first surgery and everything went well. Exclaiming on the colorfulness of what I saw on the ride home, I was very excited about the positive changes I was already experiencing. With my “new” good eye, I saw how white the kitchen counters were—not dingy beige or off-white. Our garden lettuce leaves were lime green. I could distinctly see the leaves on the trees in our yard, and noticed a bird and flowers with clarity. What had been hazy and dim was now a splash of colors and hues! I couldn’t have been more pleased.

However, the downside to my improved eyesight was noticing the nicks on the kitchen floor from the previous owners, dust on the baseboards, and spots on my clothing that had gone undetected, earlier. After my mother’s cataract surgery many years before, she commented, “Now I see how dirty my house is and all the wrinkles I have on my face.”

I wonder if the blind man whom Jesus healed (Mark 8:22–26) was not only super excited to be able to see but also to see in full color, with the brilliance of baby eyes undimmed by disease or age? What was he experiencing as he walked or ran home? Did he stop, awestruck by the shapes and colors he was seeing all around him?

He absolutely had new eyes as these lovely images caressed his vision and brain. He was like a child in a candy shop who is told he can have all the candy he wants. Giddy with excitement, the former blind man must have gone through quite the transformation with the shock of happiness.

But I’m sure the best thing this blind man saw as he was healed was the face of Jesus—the loving, kind, and compassionate face of Jesus. The Savior knew all about the blind man and his life of sadness at the loss of vision he endured. And He knew the joy this man would feel as he was healed by His perfect touch.

Our vision can be focused on earthly things—good things are plentiful—but remember that the Lord has more for us than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams. We see things dimly with our imperfect spiritual sight, and maybe with our physical eyes, as well, while on this earth. But someday our physical eyesight will be completely perfect and our spiritual vision will be expressed in our increasing devotion and adoration of our Lord.

As the words in the song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus proclaim, “And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

Another song says,
“Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready, my God, Thy will to see;
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!”

(Open My Eyes, That I May See by Clara H. Scott, public domain)

We may think we see well, but with healed spiritual eyes touched by Jesus’ loving hands, we will truly see what we were really missing all along.