Prescription Glasses

For years I was deluded by the thought that I had 20/20 vision. Except for reading glasses, which everyone needs upon stepping beyond the age of 40, I needed nothing else.

I could see birds flying up in the sky, smoke trails of jet planes, and read all billboards on the highway.  I would recognize friends whom I had not met in a long time.

I was at a loose end one day so I joined the hubby who was watching a French movie on TV. It had English translations at the bottom of the screen, which I couldn't read. I squinted and dilated my eyes alternately but  couldn't make sense out of the blurry letters. “The production people should do something about those supers on screen,” I whined.

“They're super clear,” my husband, who has been wearing prescription glasses for years, said. “Want me to read them to you?”

I panicked.

Am I going blind? I rushed out to our terrace to look at the trees and the birds. I could see them all.

Nevertheless, I went to see an optometrist in a mall the next day anyway. She fitted on me several graded test glasses, one after the other. “Tell me which makes the screen looks the clearest.”

After the procedure she said, “You need prescription glasses to see better.” I think she might have also added, "It comes with age." That settled, and after choosing a yellow frame, I was told to pick my glasses up three days later.

When I put them on, wow,  my eyes suddenly grew like a tarsier's!

I could see the crevices on the floor, the second hand of my watch, the pock marks on the optometrist's face, the chip on the chair I was sitting on, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, horrors! I aged ten, fifteen (maybe more) years! 

On my way out, I bumped into some of my friends. They, too, looked like they passed through a time machine into the future. 

The next time I met my friend Yay, I told her, “I am not as pretty as I thought!” 

“And neither are all of your friends,” she bantered. 

My new glasses make me see everything—the good, the bad, and all the ugly little imperfections—clearly.

What happens to me with my yellow eyeglasses on is the same thing that happens to me when I read my Bible. Things I never thought existed before were there all along. I just didn't have the right eyes to see them well.

Growing up, I was told/read the story of Jacob and his household over and over again. But reading about it now makes me see the seemingly tiny things which aren't so tiny after all. He was not as perfect as I thought; he stumbled big time, made colossal mistakes, had blurry eyesight on things that are right, etc. They are all in the Bible for me to learn from, if only I open my eyes—and get to know God more.

The wrinkles on my face, courtesy of my prescription glasses, and the wrinkles in Jacob's life, courtesy of my Bible, bring about the needed change I need in my thinking about life and God.

Better yet, a better life with God. That's 20/20 grace.