Faith Words: See

For years, I've been using the same ink pad in my calculator.  If you use a calculator in your work, you might wonder why I would do that.  Good question.  If you don't, let me explain.  Mine is a printing calculator, an adding machine.  I use it to calculate sums, distances, etc.  The ink pad allows my calculator to print in both black and red.  Over time, as the ink is used up and dries out, the printed numbers become dimmer and dimmer.  I got used to straining to read the pale numbers and forgot to order a new ink pad.

It's kind of like my glasses.  For the past three or four years, I've been using the same glasses.  It's not that they continued to allow me to see clearly, especially after I stepped on them.  I just got used to looking at the world through them and seeing everything just a little blurry and double.  I kept putting off a visit to the optometrist and optician for a new pair.

Sometimes I get used to looking at the world through fuzzy lenses with little or no ink showing the images clearly.  I get used to seeing the world the way I think it is.  The pain and trouble start to look normal.  The sadness fades the joy from life, leaving everything a little less colorful, a little less real.  I forget to see the faces and lives of the people around me clearly.

I forget to see each individual as a beautiful creation from God, beloved by Him.  I forget that the Father paid for the soul of each one with the blood of His only Son.  I forget to see them through His eyes.

God, grant me the eyes to see the precious ones around me the way You see them.  Help me to value them, to love them the way You love them.  Restore the sharpness and clarity to way I see the lives I encounter each day.  Help me see the happiness and the hurting.  Help me see the joy and the sorrow.  Help me see each one through Your eyes.

Help me to see.

Patrice

Matthew 9:36 NIV

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.