We all know that the pandemic has caused us to put some things off for a while and sometimes it takes us a while to get back in the routine of doing them.  For me that was going back to the Optometrist.   I feel that both my eyes and my glasses were due for a checkup.  I had both my old pair of glasses and neither of them were in good shape anymore.
While I was there, I got to experience something I hadn’t had done in a long time.  I got to have my eyes dilated.  Ah childhood memories!  I remember getting my eyes dilated on an annual basis and always feeling awkward having a doctor’s note letting the teacher know that I did in fact have to wear sunglasses to class for the rest of the day.
The doctor decided I needed a stronger prescription, and the reason for dilating my eyes is that the process of dilating them finally forced my eyes to relax to reveal what was really going on with them.  They are quite a bit stronger than my old glasses, but he and I decided it was the right move to make.
Last Thursday I got a phone call that my new glasses were ready, so I picked them up and have been wearing them on and off since then.  I say on and off because I want to slowly adjust my eyes to the stronger prescription.
So, I have been wearing them the last couple of days and I have to say that things seem quite a bit bigger and crisper when I am wearing them despite the adjustment period I am in.  When I started looking around and seeing the difference in clarity, I started thinking about Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth: “12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The mirrors in Roman times were not glass but were steel and were much more imperfect than they are today.  Combine that fact with the idea that we are looking at it dimly, I would think that it would be very difficult to see very well what we were looking at, even if it were our own face.
So even though I see much better than I did before I know that I will never have the eyesight of someone who doesn’t need glasses.  Which reminds me that no matter how much we think we know and understand about God we are still only human.  There is only so much we can understand about God.  So, when we think we have it down, when we think we have the right answer or perfect way of doing things, we should remind ourselves that at best we are looking at a steel mirror in a dimly lit room.
I say that not to discourage our faith but to help us remember that we are still just human.  We’ll still make mistakes, and we might get things wrong.  We should then look harder in the mirror to correct our vision so that we can try to understand more clearly what it is that God wants from us.  It’s a way to remind ourselves that we should be quick to listen and slow to speak or act.  And to also remember the words from Isaiah: “8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).It is also a good reminder that God is the one in charge and that we should trust in the Lord when things don’t aways make sense and we can’t always see the way that we are going.
For now, I’ll keep working with my new glasses trusting they will help my vision while at the same time trusting in God knowing that God’s way is far better even if I can’t always see it and understand it.
Blessings,
Pastor Brian