My eyes have gone through quite a metamorphosis during my lifetime. It was after I started first grade that I noticed that I could not see very well. Things progressed and at around third grade I could not see the writing on the blackboard in my classroom. Of course, we know, especially with small children, eye problems do not get diagnosed right off the bat, therefore, a child could be thought to be a slower learner than others because of it. However, I have managed to make my way through high school and college, so I was okay in that regard, since my first pair of glasses at the age of eight or nine. It takes around two years for a child’s eyes to develop, and they continue to go through changes as they grow, even up to twenty years old. We have one daughter who has extremely bad eyesight, and we were told that it was because she had grown so fast that her cornea had become elongated, thus affecting her sight.
Everyone with eye problems knows the drill. Almost every two years and sometimes once each year, you must get your eyes checked. I have run the gamut in eyewear having glasses of every color and style over the past five decades. I have had many years of contact lens wearing as well, trying to avoid the dreaded glasses that will fog up or become horribly smudged at the most inconvenient times. As I began to age and once again my eyesight changed, the next phases were traversed, reading glasses, then bifocals, and now trifocals because of computer work and contact lenses are sadly, no longer an option for me. My vision changes now it seems daily, and I find myself taking my glasses off to see the computer and putting them back on to see distant items. It is quite a conundrum and a challenge and ever changing.
Many people do not have to wear glasses all their lives, until age begins to catch up with them and they start needing to hold things so far away to see them, until they concede that their arms are just not long enough, and they must succumb to the dreaded reading glasses. Along with this dilemma called age, forgetfulness is right there knocking at the door like a Siamese twin. Reading glasses do not always have to have a prescription, but they can be purchased very inexpensively from the Dollar Store or a Walmart. However, I have heard of those needing reading glasses who will buy a pair for each room of the house because of the onset of the forgetfulness they are experiencing. This might be where the cost begins to accumulate. You have probably heard someone ask where their glasses are, only to look at them and see them on the top of their head, therefore, no matter what room they are in they would never find them, unless they were to look in the mirror. Therefore, if they had another pair in the room they have just gone to, they could use those, until the same fate happens to that pair; from the kitchen, to the living room, to the bedroom to the bathroom, so on and so forth, because the trouble is not only with their sight, but with their memory.
At this stage of life, which varies for each person, glasses need to travel with you. There is always something that needs to be read. At home it may be a recipe, at church it is the bible, if you are going out to eat it may be a menu, if you are going on a trip, it could be a map. Therefore, if you find yourself in this situation, you will need a pair for your purse or men would have a pair in their car or pocket or both. Preparation is key, yet why is it that so many do not realize this? I used to work in a public office for the State of Tennessee, where we kept a few pair of reading glasses handy that we allowed clients to borrow. It was not because we went out and purchased them as a customer service, which would have been a genuinely nice idea, but because people had left them sitting on the counter in the lobby and we had begun to accumulate them. We allowed the poor souls who came in who had forgotten theirs at home, to use them, so they could fill out the paperwork they needed. However, this did not always work, depending on the eyesight of the person needing the glasses, the ones we had were not always a match. As a customer service, if they could not do it themselves, we were obliged to do it for them. This could become very annoying when we were overrun with customers.
When we begin our walk with the Lord, we may not have full revelation of the truth of who Jesus is and may not fully understand the scriptures completely. When we are in sin, we are blind to truth, but the Lord literally opens our eyes so that we can see, by the power of His Spirit when we come to Him. Paul says this of his own experience in Galatians 1:11-12, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” And in Ephesians 3:1-5 we see, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” We need the Spirit of God as our spectacles to see this revelation.
So many will say with their mouths that there is One God, but cannot understand how this could be, and cannot explain it, and they will write it off as being a mystery. However, God wants us to see and understand. Romans 16:25-27 states, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”
Christ Jesus was God, who is a Spirit and has no form, who robed himself in flesh, not a different God. John 4:24 says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Colossians 1:15 says, “Who is (Jesus), the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” John 1:1, & 14, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Once Jesus completed his mission on earth, which was to die for our sins, because he had flesh and pure, sinless blood, (note, a Spirit cannot die), He rose again, with a body that was then immortal, and he has ascended into heaven to take his rightful place upon the throne, because He is God, not a different or separate god.
1 Timothy 3:6 gives us the nutshell version, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” The same God who was in the beginning, who came to earth, now dwells among us and in our hearts, and we know Him as the Holy Ghost, because He is God, the Spirit, who is indeed the Holy One. He was not ‘three in One,’ as some might say, but he was the One God, manifested throughout scripture, over time in many ways, endeavoring to repair the relationship with humanity that was severed in the garden of Eden by sin. He wants to be known by us and have that communion once again. 1 Peter 1:9-13 “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”
In Matthew 16:13-20 Jesus wanted to be known, but he knew that the timing had to be right and that it would have to come by revelation, “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.”
Now is the time for revelation and understanding. Acts 17:27-31 tells us, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” The Spirit of God should always go with us, like traveling glasses. We know we are going to need it, do not set it down or leave it on the shelf, hoping you can make it through the day without it. Revelation is not a one-time thing but an ongoing process and discovery in life.
New Christians will be so excited about the Revelation they received of the new birth experience yet once they are born again, it is not the end but the beginning of revelation. Sometimes just as a child, they wonder how life could get any better than this. But a child is constantly growing, developing, and learning and continually discovering and having revelation. Children are fascinated with what we may think are the simplest things. Wow, I flipped that switch, and the light came on, and they will flip it repeatedly, because it is a new discovery to them. The entire world opens up to them right before their eyes. The same thing happens to a new child of God. When we receive His Spirit, reading His word is suddenly not ‘Greek’ to us anymore. Things in the word begin to become clearer, more powerful, and real to you. Every time you read it there is something new to be gleaned from it. It is moving, dynamic and alive.
Physically, once we know we need glasses and begin to take them with us wherever we go, we no longer need to be embarrassed because we cannot see, be thought of as incompetent, or irresponsible, having to rely on everyone else all the time to give us directions and show us the way. The same is true spiritually. John 16:13 states, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will shew you things to come.” The glasses of the Spirit of God allow us to see things more clearly which will allow us to testify to others of His marvelous works.
We become teachers to others who are still in darkness and blinded by sin, to show them the way, and lead them to God’s word, so they may find revelation also. We do not have to know how the ins and outs of electricity works, to share our experience with someone else. We can let them know, that we flipped the switch, and the light came on, you should try it too, and this is enough! We must be childlike, in that we are fascinated with what we are discovering in God, not just going through the motions, or watching someone else but experiencing Him for ourselves. Children often like to dissect small creatures in science class, because they can see how they are made and how they ‘tick.’ They have tiny hearts, and other internal organs as we do. Just because we cannot see our heart or liver, does not mean it has not always been there. When we begin to scrutinize things, we may be grossed out to discover germs on our counter tops or tables, however, they have probably always been there, but you just needed the microscope to see them. Likewise, the word of God has always been there, but revelation and understanding are needed through the Spirit for us to see it clearly.
The menu at your favorite restaurant has not changed, you just need your reading glasses to be able to select what you want to eat. Ofttimes people make light of the fact that they do not have their reading glasses with them. But the fact of the matter is, it is not necessarily a joke or funny and could lead to profound consequences. When this happens, they will look very foolish. Perhaps, they cannot complete a test they need to have done by a deadline or there could be significant changes to instructions they will need to know. This is all due to their own negligence. They must then depend on others to read for them even though they are very capable. A responsible and mature adult will always have what they need with them. In the same token, the Spirit of God is of utmost importance. We should not neglect it or try to undermine it or make light when it is obvious to those around us that we have laid it aside and forgotten it at home. It could be a life or death situation that we or others around us face, on that day you decided you would be okay without your traveling glasses. Do not try to just muddle through your life when you could be seeing clearly and walking on the straight and narrow with confidence. Use the resources that are available to you, to make your life not only successful, but a great adventure of continuing revelation of how wonderful, Jesus really is!