Feb. 28: 20/20 Eyesight

Have you had your eyes checked lately? I have a friend who is an ophthalmologist and he is always stressing to me the importance of keeping one’s eyes in good health. He is so interesting to listen to—he amazes me with details about the human eye, about the intricacies of the optic nerve and the complexity of the DNA of an eyeball. In fact it is the marvels of the human eye that led him to believe in God.

He was agnostic until he got into Pre-med in college. His parents were burnt out on religion from their own childhood experiences with church, and like a lot of parents today, didn’t want to impose their own bias on their children so they provided no religious education at all. They chose to let their children search on their own and come to their own conclusions and establish their own faith…or not. So in the absence of any mention of God he never had reason to believe there is one.

Until he got to college when he began to study the human eye in anatomy class, and read the Bible out of curiosity. As those two investigations and their discoveries coincided his strong faith was born. He continues to learn new things about the eye and every new discovery reinforces His appreciation and awe at God’s ever-amazing creation.

He has done an extensive study of all the references to eyes in the Bible; everything from Jesus’ healing of the blind man with mud-packs made of dirt and spit (Gospel of John, chapter 9) to the comforting promise of Psalm 34:15, “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry…”

One of his favorite references is to what he calls “20/20 spiritual eyesight”. Proverbs 20:20 reads, “If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.“ He believes strongly that the quality of a person’s spiritual life is reflected in their relationship with their parents and how well they honor their parents.

Another one of his favorite eye verses he likes to quote when he talks to students is Proverbs 30:17 which warns us, “If you make fun of your father and refuse to obey your mother, the birds of the valley will peck out your eyes, and the vultures will eat them.” If we cut ourselves off from our parents through disobedience and disrespect we severely damage the quality of our own spiritual lives.

He tells students all the time, “I can tell about your relationship with God by the way you talk about and treat your mother.” If our spiritual eyesight is out of focus perhaps we need to evaluate our relationships—especially with our parents. "Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise-- "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." (Ephesians 6:2-3 [Deuteronomy 5:16])

~ Heavenly Father, thank you for my parents. Give me clear “spiritual eyesight” to see the value of honoring them, as well as honoring You. Amen.