Our little Elanor is now the proud owner of her own pair of glasses. She’s been in need for a while. Friday was the day of her eye appointment and she was so very excited! Can’t you tell?!

During her eye exam it was quickly apparent that her glasses were going to have a relatively strong prescription considering they were her first pair. The doctor said, “She isn’t going to want to take these off.” We discussed how amazed she’d be at what she could see.

The moment her new glasses donned her face for the first time was actually rather unimpressive. She didn’t react. I was a bit taken aback as I thought she would be instantly amazed. The woman working with us had her look out the storefront window at a sign across the street. “Can you read that sign?” she asked.

“Yup.” Ellie replied, with little to no excitement.

“Now take off your glasses and look at the sign.”

As she slid her glasses off and her eyes looked up… the most astonished expression appeared, “Whoa…” She sat in awe putting them on and taking them off. And the wonder of how much she could now see truly began as she read every road sign, noticed every detail, and took the whole thing in bit by bit.

I sat watching her and reflecting…

Sometimes you don’t know how much you can’t see until you can.

Sure, Ellie had spent a long time squinting. She had grown accustomed to moving up close to the smart board or t.v. to get a better view. She knew she was struggling to see. But she didn’t know how much she couldn’t see. That is… until her corrective lenses gave her the sight she’d been missing for so long.

Oh how true that is in more areas than just our physical sight. 1 Corinthians 13 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” God’s love is greater than we can understand. We can “see” some, but there is much we are not yet able to “see.” Little by little sometimes and by leaps and bounds others, the Spirit works in us to show us what we cannot “see” both about God and about ourselves.

The eye doctor told us about when he got his first pair of glasses. It was such a stunning experience, he remembers it to this day. “There are leaves on trees you know. Trees aren’t just a blob of fuzzy green. They have leaves. Tons of individual leaves that I hadn’t been seeing all that time.”

Sometime you don’t know how much you can’t see until you can.

What have been your “trees have leaves” moments with God?

There are a few scriptures I use to guide my prayers when more “sight” is needed: For my walk with God: Psalm 139:23-24  For others: Ephesians 3:14-19