Faith Is Sight for the Seeing and the Blind

I think that eyesight is one of the best of our senses. It allows us to see the smile on a little child’s face as they play, the beautiful color of flowers in bloom, and the majesty of an eagle soaring in the sky. We learn so much about the world around us and about how others are feeling by our sense of sight.

But the sense of sight is a fragile one. Many people don’t enjoy this wonderful sense. As I think about this I’m reminded of several experiences in my life involving eye troubles.

Most recently, we had a visit from my brother-in-law who came to town for an eye appointment and ended up having emergency eye surgery. We were so blessed to be able to have him stay with us during this time. We expected him for a just a night, but his visit ended up being extended as the surgeons worked to preserve his eyesight.

I have personally worn glasses for most of my life. Every morning I sit up in bed and put on my glasses, and they are the last thing I take off before I crawl in bed at night. Without my glasses everything is blurry and I can barely see. But with them, I can see clearly. Several years ago, however, I suddenly began experiencing double vision. I had an MRI and other tests, but the neurologist and ophthalmologist couldn’t figure out what was causing the double vision. They were finally able to correct it by putting prisms in my glasses, but to this day I don’t know why, without the prisms, my eyes will decide to see double sometimes.

The third thing I thought about was my dogs, who being either pure bred or part Cocker Spaniel, have all had some sort of eye troubles. Bogart had cataracts and also one time managed to tear his cornea on a stick in our backyard. The poor dog was pretty much blind, but it never slowed him down. Bette, from the age of 7 weeks old, only had one eye having lost the other in an accident. As a result her depth perception was not that great and she would sometimes run into the bottom step if she was running too fast. And yet she lived to be 18 years old, otherwise quite happy and healthy. Finally, our current dog Roman has been blind in one eye because of a cataract since he was two years old. But he is still so loveable and happy, and loves to play fetch.

Jesus came to give sight to the blind, and there are a number of stories in the Gospels of Him doing just that. But He came to give so much more. He gives the gift of faith with which even the blind can see.

Faith allows us to see hope in the most hopeless of situations.

Faith allows us to see love where our eyes see only grief and loneliness.

Faith allows us to see a future even when our own dreams have died.

Faith allows us to see the mystery of the invisible.

Faith allows us to see a small glimpse of the front side of God’s tapestry of life even as we live among the tangles and knots behind the scenes, and to trust that God knows what is best.

Faith is seeing with our heart and by the Spirit of God when what we see with our eyes is only darkness and loss.

As I started writing this post I was listening to my iPod on shuffle. I had to smile at the song that came on. It’s called Walk by Faith by Jeremy Camp. I love this song. It is a reminder to me that even when the road I’m on is broken and difficult, even when I can’t see what lies ahead, I can walk by faith in my God. The chorus is beautiful:

Well I will walk by faith
Even when I cannot see
Oh, well, because this broken road
Prepares Your will for me
Well I’m broken
But I still see Your face

Even though it’s not Music Monday, I decided it would be appropriate to share a video of this song to go along with this post. I hope it reminds you to walk by faith in our God who loves you, even when the broken road ahead seems impossible to walk and you can’t see what’s ahead.