Press the arrow to listen to Fernando Ortega sing “Be Thou My Vision” while reading today’s devotion on vision.
Scripture
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1
Observation
Today I had skin tags removed from my eyes. For those too young to understand, those are the embarrassing little flaps of skin that hang like price tags of aging around the eyelids of people bumping 50. The dermatologist took a device similar to nail clippers and snipped each one clean and then daubed me with an liquid that would make a Sunday School teacher curse. I’ve learned that when the doctor says, “This will sting a little” to expect a beehive.
My eyes are clean now of the embarrassing sales tags of aging. But I see differently now. I will wince for awhile as healing comes to tiny cuts in tender skin. As I drove away from the doctor’s office, I remembered how many times in my life that my flesh has grown. Pride, greed, and more have become unbearable to the Lord. He looks at me as intently as I study my own face in the morning mirror. In love he disciplines me because he is infatuated with me. The plastic surgeon of my soul, will not hesitate in cutting into my flesh. It hurts me because it is supposed to hurt. The sting is what makes me value vision.
Eyes of the heart will be enlightened when superfluous flesh is cut away. The work hurts not just then but long after as a reminder to see what is of real value. Today is a Colorado winter’s day, where trillions of snowflakes spray paint the landscape each with their one-of-a-kind pirouette. I see this differently today because the skin around my eyes hurts. The pain makes it more beautiful.
When I let the Lord close enough to cut me, that pain gives me new vision. There are things I must see that can never be taken away. My calling, my friends called “saints”, and the power that is in Easter. I take all of those things for granted until the Lord uses his snipers to cut my flesh. It is in pain that I see best what matters most.
Application
Today I want to see what is valuable: the call, the people, and the power. That is what matters most. Everything else is superfluous.
Prayer
Father, thank you for pain that opens my eyes. You are restless in your pursuit of my identification with Christ. Like the persistent sculptor, you will not cease your chiseling until you get it right. I welcome what you do and today I choose to receive new sight through pain. Then let me do more than see Christ, let me be like him. Amen.
