Hold up your favorite index finger about an arm’s length in front of you. How many fingers do you see? For me (Jonathan), I see a main finger and a transparent one, and I’ve long enjoyed splitting apart and smushing together these finger images. In fact, my superpower is that each of my eyes creates a secondary image, a condition called diplopia (double vision)!
Though I don’t see rightly due to my double vision, everyone has something that messes with their vision. We lack the knowledge to discern different behaviors in people. We lack the vision to see where a project is leading. We don’t “see” the world as it truly is due to our frail humanity.
However, we also “see” incorrectly due to our sinful corruption. Why does my housemate “nag” me so often to take out the trash? My boss must surely hate me to fire me all of a sudden! Sin blinds, distracts, and befuddles us from how things really are.
How Do I See?
To see or discern the world as it truly is, we need the sight of someone who can see truly. Even if we had precise data for everything, we would lack the capacity to organize it all. We need the perspective of one who can see, understand, and order all things appropriately.
This is one of the many reasons why the story of Scripture matters so much to Christians. Only God, the maker of all things, the One possessed of all knowledge and ability to apprehend all things as they, can give us the perspective we need to see things for what they are.
Take, for example, the story of David and Goliath. When Goliath approached the armies of Israel, he and most of the soldiers on each side thought the battle between two sets of human combatants. Young David, though, approached Goliath for what the giant truly was: an opponent to the God of Israel. David saw that they waged a spiritual battle between God Himself and all the might of Philistia. With his sight corrected, what need did David have the strongest equipment if the God of everything fought on his side? With a simple stone and some cloth he felled the mighty giant because the God of heaven and earth was with his champion.
What Happens When I See Correctly?
Seeing correctly will not guarantee our version of success. For example, though David would win the battle, his actions brought him into conflict with Saul’s house throughout his life. Seeing correctly instead leads us toward godly success: faithfulness. At all times, God is making a people for Himself that they might display His glory to all the earth. At every moment, then, God calls us to see how He is forming us to look like and to display Jesus to all the world around us, even if all we do is edit some data on a spreadsheet.
My glasses bring together four images into one, correcting much of my superpower. How does God’s story of redemption correct your vision in your life right now?