Ironically, I saw it right away. The chaplain read a passage in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, where we read a brief summary statement about Moses at the end of his life. In describing this great man of God (which was a self-description, because Moses wrote the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament), we see these words, which grabbed my attention immediately: “Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated” (Deut. 34:7). Basically, it was saying that despite Moses’s advanced age, he did not have cataracts.
This passage caught my eye. I had just had cataract surgery on both my eyes on the 13th and 20th of last month. I was still recovering from my second procedure this time last week.
During my recovery, verses about eyesight would often come to mind. This was a good thing because I could not (and still cannot) clearly focus on the words in my Bible. Because it takes a full 30 days to recover, I can’t get new glasses for another three weeks. While trying to do normal things around the house, I would often say that I was walking by faith, not by sight.
After seeing this verse about Moses’s vision, I decided that I wanted to reflect on the kinds of sight I want to have. As a Christian, I want to seek first the kingdom of God. I want to see people as Jesus saw them, with compassion. I want to see my circumstances through the eyes of faith and fix my eyes not on what is seen but on what is eternal. Please join me as I unpack these points.
Seek first the Kingdom of God
In the well-known hymn, Be Thou my Vision, the songwriter expresses his longing to focus on God first and foremost daily. Nothing else should matter. We sing these powerful lyrics:
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.
In Matt. 6:33, Jesus gives His disciples a similar foundational principle about our priorities that has widespread application. He said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” It is easy to be consumed with anxiety about how we are going to get through the day to provide for our families in order to meet their basic needs. Jesus asks His followers to dedicate themselves to learn from Him, rest in Him, and trust Him to meet those needs.
One my seminary professors, Dr. Grant Howard, emphasized that seeking God first did not mean that we had to have our quiet time or personal Bible study as soon as we woke up every morning. It was more about considering God in all aspects of our lives. I strive to keep God as the center of my decision-making. I want to be the kind of Christian like Brother Lawrence, who practiced the presence of God no matter what it was He was doing, seeking His will with every single breath.
See people as Jesus did
It has been frustrating not to be able to see clearly the past few weeks, but it is only temporary.
What has been more frustrating to me over the nearly five decades I have walked with the Lord is the fact that I do not see people as Jesus saw them. I only see the outside, but God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Like the churchgoers referred to in the book of James who were chastised for their human perspective that did not line up with the way Jesus saw people (James 2:1-9), I still judge people by their appearance. When I do that, it is likely that I may be treating them differently.
For example, if I treat what I think is an attractive woman differently than any other, I am guilty of this. I am also forgetting what was written in Prov. 31:30, regarding how shallow external beauty is.
What I want to do is what I mentioned in an article on God’s eyes that I wrote about this time last year. Knowing that God sees the suffering of people He loves should cause me to pray for them and look for opportunities to minister to those that usually make us uncomfortable: the lost, the last, and the least of these.
Have an eternal perspective
I was taught this particular concept when I was a new Christian in college. The idea was to train ourselves to see beyond the initial or ongoing suffering we faced in our trials, whether they be big ones or small ones. In light of eternity, we wanted our focus to be on what God’s purposes were.
How did this trial bring us closer to God? How did it teach us to lean on Him? How did it make us more humble? Did our struggle make us more sensitive to those who struggle with the same things?
The Apostle Paul shared what he learned through his own trials, whether by persecution, physical ailments, or financial burdens. He wrote, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
Challenging conclusion
As a result of my recent cataract surgery, I no longer take my eyesight for granted. In the same way, as a Christian who has been born again with spiritually sensitive eyes to see what God has revealed through Jesus Christ, I do not want to take that for granted either. Jesus said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Luke 10:23-24).
May we learn to let God open our eyes by faith so that we can clearly seek His kingdom first, notice those whom we are called to serve, and see beyond our daily trials to know that He is in control.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Russ Gehrlein
Featured Image by Diego Ortiz from Pixabay
