The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
Psalm 146:8
The Texas skies were dark as my daddy drove our family to Grandma Holt’s house for a family gathering around the supper table. In the back seat, I snuggled against the door, looking out into the cool, dark evening.
Suddenly, there was a small flash of colored light and then two more right outside the car window. Just as quickly the glowing colors disappeared. I screamed in excitement, “Did you see them? Did you see them?”
Daddy paid no attention, but Momma glanced backward, “What hon? What did you see? I didn’t see anything.”
I took a deep breath trying to catch my breath and hold in my excitement, “I saw…I saw three flying fairies! One was wearing blue, one was wearing green, and one was wearing yellow!”
Daddy was listening now. Mom turned sideways in her seat to look back at me, “What did you say that you saw?”
“Fairies, Momma – I saw fairies. Flying! Right by the car window! They were beautiful! It was like magic!”
Smiling, Momma explained that most likely I had seen blinking lights on a car or an airplane in the sky or twinkling stars. I didn’t buy any of it. I was sure of what I had seen – fairies.
I knew Momma didn’t believe me and I was still pouting when we arrived at Grandma’s house.
After all the hello-hugs and kisses were exchanged, Momma joined Grandma in the kitchen, and the rest of us settled in the front room to wait for supper. Then my daddy said, “Sherri saw something when we were driving over – tell ‘em what you saw, hon.” Please understand, Daddy wasn’t trying to be mean, he was a hopeless tease and simply couldn’t help himself.
Usually, I loved the spotlight, but this time I was uncertain. I told my story as dramatically as a four-ish year-old little girl could, concluding with “and I saw three fairies fly by my car window.” A quiet pause, then laughter erupted, and I burst into tears, fleeing the room to hide my face in Grandma’s apron.
In retrospect, I admit those flying fairies looked suspiciously like the three good fairies in my “Sleeping Beauty” storybook – Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather – except in the Little Golden Book, the third fairy wore pinkish red, not yellow.
Here’s a little backstory:
I was fairy-obsessed. I loved any story that contained a fairy. I drew fairies. I made fairy paper dolls. I pretended my dolls were fairies. I pretended that I was a fairy.
I made fairy beds out of matchboxes – complete with sheets, blankets, and pillows. I even cleaned out walnut shells to make them into cradles for tiny fairy babies, just in case a momma fairy brought her little one when she came to visit.
I’d leave little gifts and snacks beside the fairy beds at night so the fairies would be tempted to spend the night. I hoped that I’d get up early enough one morning to find one still asleep in her matchbox bed. Each morning I’d carefully examine the little beds looking for signs that a fairy had slept there.
No fairy ever showed up, but is it any wonder that I had a moment when I was certain that I saw a fairy…three fairies?
I was expecting to see fairies. I viewed my little world through “fairy-colored” lenses.
What colors your lenses?
Whether you’ve got “eagle eyes” or you’re as “blind as a bat”, you likely view the world through colored lenses of some sort.
Maybe your lenses are stained by a traumatic childhood, abusive relationships, bad decisions, failures, or broken dreams.
Perhaps you’re looking at the world through lenses colored by your success and importance, your impressive credentials, your bank account and investment portfolio, or your many other notable accomplishments.
Possibly you view the world through your religiosity – your adherence to the rules, your Biblical intelligence, your faithful church attendance, and many acts of service. All good and admirable things. But still not the lens through which you are supposed to be looking.
Whatever color your lenses, it paints everything you look at – including your view of God, Scripture, your personal relationship with Christ, and your spiritual walk. Your entire life and belief system will be stained by the colored lenses that you wear.
You see, it is our human inclination to interpret everything based on the way that we see it – through lenses colored by hues that we have mixed for ourselves.
It’s much like the time in my young life when I looked at the world through fairy-colored lenses. I saw fairies and evidence of fairies wherever I looked because I was looking for fairies.
In essence, we allow our color-tainted perceptions to create our own version of “truth” through which we measure everything else – even God. Do you see the problem here?
The Pharisees and religious leaders in the New Testament days saw Jesus restore sight to the blind, open deaf ears, regenerate crippled limbs, and raise the dead. They witnessed these remarkable miracles with their own eyes.
And yet, through their religiosity-colored lenses, Jesus didn’t meet their version of truth – their expectations of what the long-awaited Messiah would look like. They met Jesus face-to-face, they witnessed the miracles, they talked and argued with Him, but they were unable to recognize the Savior of the World. (John 9)
There’s a beautiful counterpoint in Mark 8 when Jesus laid his hands on the eyes of the blind man in Bethsaida. Mark writes, “then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” (v.25) Touched by Jesus, his lenses were wiped clean, his sight was restored, and the once-blind man saw clearly.
How do we wipe away the stains that sully our lenses and cloud our vision making it impossible for us to see the truth of who God is and how He wants us to live?
How do we see clearly?
How do we view God, His Truth, and all aspects of our lives with eyes that have a godly perspective?
Simply put, it’s not something we can do on our own.
“But my eyes are toward You, O GOD, my LORD; in You I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!”
Psalm 141:8
But God…don’t you love that phrase? But God in His mercy, grace, and love has given us the cleansing solution through His Word and in His Word.
John wrote of Jesus, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). It is through Jesus Christ – the Word made flesh, His death, burial, and resurrection that we can have new life and restored vision.
And it is in the Word of God, enlightened and empowered by His Holy Spirit, that we can experience the active ongoing cleansing that keeps our lenses clean and our vision clear. James calls it the “implanted word which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). James is not referring to salvation, but to the ongoing sanctification process of the believer.
Sanctification – That is the ongoing cleansing needed to better see God and understand more fully the Truth of His Word.
“As Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.”
Ephesians 5:25-26
It always comes back to the same truth, doesn’t it? We can have new life only through the One Who is the Living Word – Jesus Christ. To see clearly and live fully, we must be filled moment-by-moment by His ever-enduring Word of Truth – God’s Holy Word.
In that day…the eyes of the blind shall see.
Isaiah 29:18
The light of the eyes rejoices the heart…
Proverbs 15:30
Dear Friend, are your lenses clean? Are you seeing clearly as God would have you see?