Tuesday, September 13, 2011

New Vision

Today my son had an eye doctor appointment. On my calendar, I had the appointment scheduled for 10:30. Upon arriving at the office I was quickly informed that our appointment was actually at 8:30. Bummer!!! That is just typical of my days here lately. I'm always behind and a bit mixed up. They ended up letting us stay which was a complete blessing considering this Dr only comes to Longview once a week and we have had this appointment for over a year. This doctor is not easy to get in to see.

Mackenson, had been looking forward to this appointment for quiet some time. He has had glasses since he started the 2nd grade and is now in the 5th grade. He is desperately wanting to get contacts and feels this is the best option for him. I love how kids can look at a situation and think they know everything. Lol! As I picked him up from school the whole ride to the office was to tell me how much contacts were a great idea for him. He talked of a commercial he had seen that said they could last a month and then you could throw them away. He thought that was waaaayyy cool! He also proceeded to tell me that since they didn't dilate his eyes last year that he knew they would be doing so this year. 

They called us back to the room to examine his eyes and all we can hear is a child screaming bloody murder for at least five minutes. He looks at me and says "Mom, I hope I don't do that." Of course my sarcastic reply with a smile was "that will be you in about 10 minutes." He laughs halfheartedly but with a scared look on his face. Exam happens, the spraying occurs and he succeeds with flying colors. NO screams! NO moans! NO crying! Just a little amazement on his part that he didn't die! Lol! We go back to the waiting room to allow time for his eyes to go to the "hardly can see" mode. He sits there and the Lord gives me some perspective.

I have never had trouble with my physical eyes nor has my husband so this living and learning with my child through this has sometimes been difficult. My heart has hurt numerous times from the fear that my child would stand out in an awkward manner and that the crossing of his eyes were a little less than perfect and needed help being able to function properly. I guess all parents have these fears with their children. My fears God has had to conquer.


I sat in the waiting area as my sons vision became blurred and realized even those of us with perfect vision have blurred vision at times. Our problem may not be that we need glasses, bifocals, trifocals, or contacts it may be that we need to see through His eyes and not our own. It may be that we need His Word to clear things up for us. It may be that though our physical eyes are 20/20 our spiritual eyes are dried up and are in major need of the living water to nurture us to site.

When life seems the hardest it is Him who carries us. The hard part is letting Him put that spray in to dilate. You see God does allow storms in our lives, we are to decide how we will handle them. Will we scream with fear and hurt like the little boy in the optometrist office? Will we throw our fit and pout for a while until someone hears us and feels sorry for us? Or will we sit knowing the storm is coming, endure the pain, notice the blur of the storm and be aware that God is working? My son knew that in order to come out on the other end with contacts, clear vision, he was going to have to endure some pain and discomfort. He knew it was then that they could see the problem and help him to get what He needed in order to see correctly. It's the same for us. God uses everyday struggles, battles, and even major catastrophes and devastation in our lives to blur our physical eyes so that our spiritual eyes can be refocused on Him.  It is the process of getting rid of what isn't needed and enhancing what is needed. So though our eyes may be a blur in all that we are going through, His eyes are perfect and able to guide us along the way.  In turn, we come out with what we really need...new eyes...NEW VISION!!