Eyesight

Thoughts from the One-Year Bible
January 25, 2011
Gen 50:20 - “Don't you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good,....”(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

I have worn glasses, it seems, all my life. The earliest school pictures show me wearing glasses when I was in the first grade. Now that is a long, long time. Several years ago I had a wonderful surgery that transformed my eyes forever. I no longer have my natural lenses, I have implants. My left eye has an implant for reading and my right eye has an implant for seeing things at a distance. It was amazing! The very first morning I got out of bed I could see the clock all the way across the room...with no glasses! Before that surgery my vision was so bad I could hardly see anything clearly within five feet. Once the implants were in place I could see well all the time. In order for me to see clearly my eyesight had to be changed.

How well this little thought fits in with the scripture today. Joseph’s brothers thought they were going to be mistreated now that Father Jacob was dead. You know,... those brothers that sold him down the river and thought they would never see him again? But, Joseph was seeing things a little more clearly than his brothers. His eyesight had been changed. No longer did he view what his brothers did as evil. He saw through what his brothers had done it actually positioned him to be able to help his brothers and all fo their families. His brothers were looking at the situation without the use of God-eyesight. They were looking at the death of their father as floodgate through which all of Joseph’s vengeance would rain down upon them. Joseph was looking at his brothers as opportunities to bless them because of what they had done and how God had used their evil actions.

That is the problem so many times in our own lives - we have bad eyesight. And most of the time the eyesight is nearsightedness rather than farsightedness. To be nearsighted is to “myopic” - note the word “MY-opic”. When we are spiritually nearsighted we see things best at close up range - my range - me range. Things become about us and me and my - case in point...Joseph’s brothers. But Joseph was farsighted - or “hyperopic”. He could see things far away while losing sight of things up close and personal - the hurts and offenses. Too often we are “my - opic” and take everything personal. Our world is a huge failure and everyone is against us. We need to become farsighted, being able to see things at a distance. Everything is not about us and everyone is not against us. In fact, more often than not things that come into our lives are not necessarily for short range understanding, but rather long range transformation. God wants us to be like Him - Holy. The only way we get there from here is with eyesight that sees further down the road than the little things that crowd into “my” space right now. What you are going through right now is either because of less than wise decisions - OR - God is trying to change your eyesight - to see how He is working out everything for HIS purpose. After all isn’t that what life is really all about - transforming our lives and fitting us for eternity with Him?
You are loved,
Pastor Roger