What’s In Your Eye?

They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”John 12:21

I haven’t written here in a very long time. My spirit was more than willing, but the flesh…well, it’s been a struggle. This summer has been unusually hot, dry and terrible for my full-sun garden. In June the perennials came up beautifully, especially Black-eyed Susans and Shasta Daisies, filling the garden beds without any help from me. But the relentless heat and assorted garden pests haven’t been kind to my plantings. I nursed one lonely cherry tomato plant into actually producing tiny tomatoes. Dan would have been proud! Or not. The chipmunks nibbled away at the underside of the fruit, the leaves yellowed and – the tomatoes were as bitter as gall! Some things aren’t my gifting.

Because of the afternoon heat, I tried to keep house and water the gardens in the morning coolness. I don’t do well in 90 degree afternoons any more and was too enervated to focus on writing at night. All this is to say, God has still been good to me in the cool of the morning as well as in afternoon drought. I find His grace even when I can’t do half what I used to.

Recently, I had cataract surgery and am so grateful for the technology which allows doctors to correct what commonly used to make people blind. However, I was told there is another problem in my left eye and need to have monthly injections in that eye. I imagined a needle the size of a plank jabbed into my eye which sounded about as much fun as a root canal. I shouldn’t have fussed. The doctor was experienced, the needle was like a pin prick and the procedure over in the blink of an eye! However, I now have the gift of floaters, those black spots which appear in your vision, but are always just out of reach, like large gnats hiding and seeking. At first there was a large black bubble dangling below my chin. “Oh no problem,” the doctor said. “It’s normal and will disappear in a few days.” He was right, of course.

But normal or not, the floater was a huge distraction in my field of vision.The more I ignored it, the more persistently it distorted what I was seeing or doing. In fact, I couldn’t NOT see it. It demanded my attention for hours, wearied me and I was happy for the relief of sleep. It’s finally disappeared, but hatched little floaters which are also annoying but tolerable. But each time one pops up, I see it and feel like swatting it away.  As my eye heals, the floaters will go away.

I think of the spiritual floaters which so often distract me from God -those things that show up and I cannot rid my vision of them. Sometimes they’re large, wet bubbles of a black resentment or the flying fragments of harsh words or a cloud of gnats blinding me to God’s love. More often than not, as Jesus warned, I imagine  super – floaters in another’s eye, but ignore my own. In truth, I can never see what another person sees. Like every other cellular design  in our bodies, God designed each person’s eyes uniquely.It is for  for one reason alone: to seek out the  Person of Jesus  and see Him for ourselves.