Tired of wearing my contacts, I pulled out my frames and put them on only to realize I hadn’t updated the prescription. In frustration, I took them off and closed my eyes. Ugh…I opened them, and silently prayed that God would give me 20/20 vision again, trying to make a deal that I’d promise to share my miraculous healing story with all I meet. I waited for a moment to see if my faith was great enough to make it happen, before I realized it probably wasn’t. I stared out with my now natural view at the blobs walking past on the street and realized I couldn’t even see the snow falling outside, it was too fine and quick. But then I got to thinking… How often do we just miss things because we really can’t see past the end of our nose?
How many times do we find ourselves squinting? Moving a page back and forth to focus or looking for another light to turn on in the room? Or maybe the sun was too bright? Can’t find that pair of sunglasses so you just close your eyes? So many times we look for a temporary or immediate fix to our big problems, but don’t realize how big our problem is until we’ve tried everything we can. Only then do we go to the doctor.
The promise of Christmas is Emmanuel, “God with us,” but the how he’s with us has always been the metaphorical/flowery part that most have a hard time grasping. What if it’s more concrete then that?
I’ve heard the good news, the gospel explained so many ways, -why we needed a savior, - why Jesus chose to come, -why people come to believe at various ages and life stages, but none have struck me as very concrete, of course it’s always hard to explain the mystical.
What if it’s like our relationship to our eyes? We are all born with eyes -some are born blind, some nearsighted, some farsighted, some with 20/20 vision. Over the course of time we adjust our lifestyles to fit the needs of our eyes in our homes, communities, work places.
I think most will agree that over time, our eyesight, while heavily used and appreciated for all it allows us to perceive about the world, is one of the first things to wear out. We adapt again as much as we can and seek help from the doctor to try to correct our eyes with lenses and surgery, and our environments. We become forever dependent on these lenses or the outside work that was done for us, and keep modifying accordingly.
What if we thought about faith this way. God designed us with eyes to see and appreciate allof the world around us. Remember how the world looked as a child? Everything was fresh and new, fun to explore just how thing were related? I think of Adam and Eve exploring the world in the garden at the beginning of humanity. Jesus also encouraged this view of life, as we find in Mark 10:15 “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” So what is it about this childlike view and understanding? Do they see and perceive more?
So if we believe that God created humanity in his image and gave them a world to care for, you can bet he would’ve given them all the tools to make it work. But once something perfect is messed up it can never be restored to the same condition, it now has a story of brokenness. God gave provision tying men and women to the earth and to depend on each other, as he knew they’d not be able to do it alone, and neither can we. The Old Testament is full of stories of God’s people acting and walking in blind faith as they grew as a people and nation trying to follow God wherever he might take them. I think sending Jesus to us was like sending the repairman or the eye doctor. Since he was at creation and a piece of creation, he knew exactly which pieces were missing or broken and sacrificed his own perfect self to restoring and restarting things for us. At Jesus’ death, the curtain veiling the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn revealing all that had once been hidden to our eyes (Matt. 27:51). He restored our relationship with God and made a way for us to get back on track with the plans God had designed for us and his world. But as we are created in his image, we are designed with creative minds and the ability to process and choose to believe, our daily actions, or even live. We messed it up before, what’s to say it wouldn’t happen again?
So Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, just as we indulge in all of our wants besides what God has given to us. Our wants by nature are selfishly driven, and can and often do become a bit uncontrollable until a friend or family member intervenes. These things often destroy the relationships we strive so hard to keep, how ironic are we. It is the view of children, the simple understanding of love and quick forgiveness that restores friendships.
Have ever seen two 3 year-olds fighting over a toy? A parent steps in with another toy they didn’t see and they can be instant friends again. What if God is like this parent stepping in to show us what we can’t see close to us, but out of our vision. I believe when we pray for God’s eyes to see things the way he does we’re instantly challenged to do what we can with all the more that we see. We’ll often see the poor and homeless and poor in spirit we didn’t see sitting right beside us. But we’ll also see the hope that God has given all of us to know that this is not where the story ends.
Jesus didn’t let his sacrifice be the last word. As a part of creation, he also was able to create a new way to hope. With his resurrection on the third day he conquered death- the one fate that was waiting for everyone, and walked again on the earth as God with us bringing heaven to earth with him and gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us as he ascended into heaven. But we have to choose to receive a gift. God gave us the gift of Jesus with us (God with us), Jesus gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit (God with us), and as promised the Holy Spirit gives us access to God, so he is with us.
God enables us to see Jesus on earth through Christmas, Jesus shows us that we can see more through the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit helps us see the world and all the relationships in it as intended. Crazy, but it enables us to see and know and understand so much more than we’d even be able to on our own.
In Mark 10:14, we see that the Kingdom of God belongs those like these children. Those that understand they belong and are given opportunity to play a part and can share it, but know they don’t own it. We do wear ourselves and our eyes out by all the things we do, consume and invest in which includes serving our God and savior, but we need to trust that he will be like a dependable doctor and continue to correct our vision if we stay with him.
Mark 8: 23-25 shows us this as Jesus heals a blind man. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.
Now my eyes haven’t been restored to 20/20, but I do more clearly see why I needed the gift of Christmas. May you also see more of what Christmas and life is all about.
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