Do you Have Eyes to See?

I had cataract surgery last week on both eyes.  The results are beyond my expectations - being able to see clearly at distance without glasses.  I still need reading glasses but that is what I expected.  I have been wearing glasses for distance vision since I was about seven years old, so it is quite amazing that I do not need glasses other than for reading now.  Indeed, I keep reaching for the glasses that are not on my face – something like phantom pain for an amputated limb – except there is no pain involved.

I have naturally had my vision on my mind during this time and brought into focus (so to speak) what we can see and what we are not able to see.  I have been aware that many things can be there in our lives which we are not aware of or may have missed seeing for many years – not because our eyes are dim but because we unconsciously or unknowingly have filters that don’t allow that image to register on our consciousness.

The best example of this happened some years ago when I was visiting a small town in Saskatchewan – Fort Qu’Appelle - where I had lived when I was a teenager.  Lorna and I had taken a trip out west and stopped off in Saskatchewan and visited some of my old haunts.  We drove to the United Church in town where my family worshipped.  I was raised in the United church – my father was a United Church minister, and we had moved to Ft. Qu’Appelle where he was the principal of the Prairie Christian Training Centre run by the United church.  In any case, Lorna and I found the United Church – which was right where I remembered it and got out and looked around.  It was pretty much as I remembered it.  However, I was amazed to see that right across the street was an Anglican Church which I had no memory of being there. 

My first reaction was that perhaps it was built after we lived in town.  However, it is a lovely fieldstone building which was built in 1885.  So, it must have been there when I was frequenting the United Church which – I must say - is not nearly as lovely as the St. John’s Anglican Church in Ft. Qu’Appelle.  You have to wonder about all the things that don’t register in your consciousness that are all around you.  Now Lorna would put this down to my less than observant nature, which I must agree with, but I know that this is more than just being less than observant.  Perhaps there was a larger lesson for me that waited fifty years to register with me. 

Jesus was very aware of the importance of sight - both the physical ability to see and the symbolic or psychological importance of sight.  He healed many people of their physical blindness e.g. Blind Bartimaeus.  He also spent a great deal of precious time and energy trying to enable people to see the truth of who they were as children of God.  This is well summarized in the passage from Matthew 13:15   

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

The disciples were great examples of people who should have been able to see i.e. understand what Jesus was showing them and telling them.  However, they often did not get it.  That gives me some comfort in my willfulness or blindness in not being the person God created me to be.  I know that there are many aspects of life – many of the realities of life that I am blind to – willfully or otherwise. This week, I invite you to see if you have eyes to see and ears to hear where God is calling you to go on your journey in your life. 

I give thanks for the wonderful medical staff at the Ivey Eye Institute in London Ontario who are literally giving eyes to see to so many people.