I was 13 when I had to get glasses. I was nervous because, frankly, I was never very popular or good looking to begin with. And my mother (much beloved) had a penchant for picking things out for us not because they were cool, but because they 'complimented the shape of our face'. Now being young & much Irish, my face was roughly akin to a pale, freckled saucer. (When my son was young, well-meaning people would say, "oh, how cute, he got your cheeks.") So long story short, I got enormous brown plastic framed glasses... because I had an enormous pale brown-freckled face. Not cool.
BUT when I finally got them back from the doctor, I remember standing on the edge of my parent's farm, staring over the rolling Illinois hills, and seeing, for the first time in a long time, the details of the landscape. Tiny leaves blew across the bow of every tree that stood against the distant sky. The rows carved into the plowed fields gave texture and depth to the Illinois farmland. Birds spun dizzyingly high into the enormous sky. It was like I had never seen how beautiful it really was...right in front of me...every single day.
And that, my friends, is what faith is like. Sure, you and I can live and make do with our daily existence. Sure we are 'functional'...more or less... depending on our individual proclivities. AND YET - if we would dare, there is beauty all around us that we cannot fathom without seeing it first-hand. Faith gives sight to those of us tending towards blindness of any degree.
I know my atheistic friends will object. And I understand, I was there once as well. But I will speak clearly for myself now; once I saw, living without sight was no longer an option.
BUT when I finally got them back from the doctor, I remember standing on the edge of my parent's farm, staring over the rolling Illinois hills, and seeing, for the first time in a long time, the details of the landscape. Tiny leaves blew across the bow of every tree that stood against the distant sky. The rows carved into the plowed fields gave texture and depth to the Illinois farmland. Birds spun dizzyingly high into the enormous sky. It was like I had never seen how beautiful it really was...right in front of me...every single day.
And that, my friends, is what faith is like. Sure, you and I can live and make do with our daily existence. Sure we are 'functional'...more or less... depending on our individual proclivities. AND YET - if we would dare, there is beauty all around us that we cannot fathom without seeing it first-hand. Faith gives sight to those of us tending towards blindness of any degree.
I know my atheistic friends will object. And I understand, I was there once as well. But I will speak clearly for myself now; once I saw, living without sight was no longer an option.