Christian Living

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Yesterday I went to the optometrist to get a new prescription. For the past month or so I have been taking off my glasses so that I can see better. I began wearing glasses in fifth or sixth grade. Since then the first thing I have always done in the morning is put on my glasses (or put in my contacts) and the last thing I have done at night has been to take them off (out), so going without my "specs" is truly unusual for me.

I wore contacts for many years. My older sister, Paula, had to do some fast talking to get our parents to agree to contacts. (My younger sisters, Mary, Martha and Elizabeth used to have a hilarious newspaper that they put out every month or so (using a " hectograph", I think). The paper was called the Hussmann Caller. I even had high school friends who subscribed to that paper. One memorable headline read: "Boys seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses. Paula got contacts!")

Anyway, once Paula broke down the resistance it was a breeze for the rest of us to follow suit, so I had contacts when I was a junior in high school. Those years we wore the hard lenses. If you fell asleep with them in your eyes you had better have a good friend who was not afraid to help you pry them off your eyeballs. Man, that hurt. Plus, those same friends spent a lot of time trying to locate the lens that was still in your eye but not centered where it belonged. That was torture, too. Finally coaxing it back in place was such a relief. Other times your helpers joined you on the bathroom floor to search for a dropped lens. I hated it when one of those kind hunters found that fragile glass disk by stepping on it. (That happened more than once!)

Those of you who are over fifty know that the contact situation becomes more complicated when you wear bifocals. I did that "one contact corrected for distance and one for close-up" thing for a few years. It was amazing how my brain was able to sort that out.

The final defeat, though, came with trifocals. I haven't worn my contacts for a few years, now, so that is why glasses are so important. My daughter, Paula, is my fashion consultant, so I won't do anything until she helps me pick out some new frames, but I hope she is available soon. I want to see clearly, effortlessly again.

When I get frustrated with this whole process, I ask myself, "What did the pioneers do?" ( We had to take Nebraska History when I was in school, so I guess that is why I think in pioneer terms. We loved it because we made up our own captions for the slides. It makes me smile just to think of that class.). And then I realize that God has granted me clear vision in two ways, both physically, with corrective lenses and spiritually with His Holy Word, and I "see" how doubly blessed I am.

"For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people." Luke 2:30-31.

Katherine

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