Looking At Life Through Redeemed Eyes

     When my husband and I married 48 years ago, he was a student of optometry at The Ohio State University and I had a new position working in public relations for the Ohio Optometric Association.   He picked up extra work along with having  scholarship help so we could make ends meet in those early years.  His study of the eye, its diseases, treatments and solutions for vision problems was a fascinating one for which he felt called by God.  Side by side, we shared a plan to help others through  his work.
     In the year before we wed, both of us had another experience that made a big change in the way in which we viewed life as a whole.  We had been introduced to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as Cru).  This not only changed our relationship to God, but it radically opened our spiritual "eyes" to a new worldview.  In the light of God's Word, we could see things we had missed before.  Life came into focus much like a child who could not physically see well until he/she put on a pair of glasses.  It was amazing!
     Perhaps some of you have never witnessed the expression on the face of a person who has only seen life through fuzzy vision until they are given a pair of corrective lenses.  Their world goes from blurry to clear in an instant and takes their breath away.  This is how it was for both of us before we made our covenant with God in marriage.
     Looking through redeemed eyes means we can truly see life and sin as it really is.  There is no fuzzy or blurry perspective.  Sometimes that is hard for us to see all at one time, so God graciously leads us in our growth and sanctification revealing how horrible sin really is and how great is His salvation.  I am happy He doesn't show it to us all at once lest it be overwhelming.
     Daily, as we bathe our minds in the Word of God, more becomes clear to us that was perhaps obscured in years past.  For example, I was thinking of my parents today and the many choices they made which I never understood till now.  My rebellious attitude and actions did not make their job easy, and for that, I heartily repent.  Laying these past actions at the cross has set me free from the guilt of the past.  This is what new vision in Christ accomplishes for us.
     A great example of an "eye opening" change was in the life of John Newton, "The African Blasphemer" as he called himself.  He was raised by a Puritan mother who taught him the Reformed catechisms until her death when he was six years old.  His father was a sea captain and took him on many trips.  John was later impressed into the British Navy but was so rebellious he was dismissed.  He fell into the hands of a slave trader and was made a slave himself for a time.
     Eventually, John Newton became a leading captain of slave trade ships which he later described as horrible places of death for many of his human cargo.  During a terrible storm where the ship was nearly lost, John returned to the faith his mother had shared with him when he was small.  In time, he came to be a clergyman and fully repented of his hand in the slave trade along with his other sins.  His most famous contribution was the writing of the poem entitled "Amazing Grace".  After this was set to music, it became one of the most beloved hymns of the Christian faith.
     Through redeemed eyes, John Newton saw what his sin had done to others and to himself.  Until his death in 1807, he lived to make clear the message of Jesus Christ that set men free.  He was a spiritual eye doctor offering sight to the blind in this world.  It is said that in his latter years when he could no longer reason or remember well, he remarked to a friend:  “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”   Of all things, these are the two greatest things to remember.
     While on earth, Jesus healed physical blindness, but opening spiritual eyes to see the truth of God's Word was His greatest mission.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:22:  22“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. 23“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"  The redeemed eye can see clearly and fill us with the light of God's understanding.  Just as my husband worked to help people see things clearly in the physical realm, Jesus Christ came to give us spiritual vision that was clear.  As we pour through the pages of the Bible daily and immerse ourselves in prayer to the only One who sees all things plainly can we really begin to put life in proper perspective.  Today, let us thank God for "redeemed eyes" and ask Him to continue to show us the truth that we may bring glory to His name.  Selah!