For the tenth time that morning, I pulled my glasses from my face, snuck the edge of my shirt up just a little, and wiped the lenses. The smudges always seemed to come from nowhere. Try as I may to keep from touching anything but the frames, the smears and fingerprints always find their way into my line of vision.
As I held the lenses up to the light, it occurred to me that my glasses aren’t the only things in my life that need upkeep for clarity. A thousand times a day I check and recheck them to make sure that what I’m seeing is the way things really are; other places, though, go unchecked until I cannot see at all.
I begin the day with a devotion and my prayer journal. Wipe, wipe, wipe…the lenses of my heart are cleared.
I dress to the sound of worship choruses filling the air. Wipe, wipe, wipe. Hold to the light…clear.
I clock in as mama, trying to wake the little one up to begin her day. She grumbles and kicks and resists. A smudge across my line of vision.
Milk spills across the counter, and a smear tears across my heart. Smudge. Smear.
I trip over the cat as I hurry to get things into the car.
Another rushed mama cuts me off in her minivan.
Panera is out of my bagel of choice, and there are no tables with outlets available.
Smudge, smear, scratch, blot, smudge.
When something enters into my eyes’ path, blocking my view of the world in front of me, I stop. I take a minute to fix it. I don’t try to look through them, carrying on as though that is the way I’m supposed to see things. No, I remove the frames and set about removing the distraction. If it keeps me from seeing, it can’t stay.
But my heart…. My heart is wiped clear but once a day. With every move I make, another greasy fingerprint finds its way into my line of vision, gradually blurring my vision and eventually eclipsing my view of heaven altogether. Unless I am actively wiping it clean, I am allowing it to again become smeared. By the end of the day, my heart is nearly blind.
But then, the next morning….time in the Word. Worship music on the iPod. A beautiful sunrise, and my vision is again as it was meant to be. Another day…more messes to block my view…but another chance to see.
Smudged, smeared…..and wiped clean. A clear view of life as it really is.
