I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. What deer? I didn’t see any deer. The next week Dad took me to an optometrist for my very first eye exam. I was seven years old.
I’ll never forget walking out of the optometrist’s office wearing glasses for the first time. I was amazed and overjoyed at the world around me. The sight of individual leaves shining on a tree outside the optometrist’s door thrilled me. I thought all trees were just a green mass. People suddenly had faces instead of being a blur of color. Did others see this way? I thought everyone saw the world as I did, and suddenly I realized there was a totally different world to explore and enjoy. All my life I had normalized blurry.
We normalize abnormality, because we don’t know it is abnormal. Our view of a situation, ourselves, another person, a relationship, or even our family might seem normal to us, but is it? From God’s standpoint, our perception may be very imbalanced—we just don’t know it.
God has given us four gifts as spiritual glasses with which to view our world: his Spirit, his Word, his people, and his grace.
- His Spirit confronts us so we’re willing to admit that our normal may be abnormal (see Romans 8:13–15).
- His Word operates as a scalpel within us—clearing the cataracts from our inner lens (see Hebrews 4:12).
- His people see us at our best and worst—holding us accountable for godly change (see Galatians 6:1).
- His grace brings the power we need to change (see Titus 2:11, 12).
Together, these comprise our spiritual glasses.
My perceptions have changed a lot over the years since I first put on my spiritual glasses. God’s Spirit, Word, people, and grace have adjusted my inner eyes so that my discernment of the things I observe and practice is clearer. You might say that I’m beginning to make out the leaves among the mass of green blur on the trees around me–what was once abnormal and accepted as normal is adjusting to God’s point of view.
What abnormalities have you normalized, yet are beginning to see as abnormal? How is God adjusting your view of your world to match his view? Have you cleaned your spiritual glasses lately?
In Him together, Susan Gaddis
This Post Has 2 Comments
What an insightful (pun intended) explanation of how God tweaks our vision. I loved this blog, and could so relate to it. My husband just recently went in for an eye exam because his glasses were very old and quite scratched- he is thrilled with the improved clarity of sight between both his new prescription and new clean lenses. After God puts spirit specs on us, He desires us to have a regular check up with the Master Physician to finetune those lenses, and then He gifts us new specs free from all the wear and tear of using them daily in our broken world. I love what you write in your blog Susan- its part of my spiritual spectacles. God bless you!
Thanks for adding your insights (pun also intended), Lora. I think you nailed it. 🙂