Saturday Morning Post #1: SEEING

IT’S MY PLEASURE TO SERVE on the Board of Directors at the center for Visually Impaired Persons of Southwest Florida. The VIP is a non-profit rehabilitation center committed to ensuring blind and visually impaired persons have the tools, support and opportunities necessary to successfully achieve their desired level of independence. My position there has afforded me the privilege of speaking with the Adjustment to Blindness support group about my belief that life’s losses can ultimately turn out to be gains.

THE LOSS of their physical sight is traumatic. It is quite natural and normal that they experience the “grief of loss” much like I did when my husband, Michael, died. Life as they knew it is irreversibly changed – they can’t go back in time. They can’t somehow recapture the life they had before the loss of their vision. I seek to identify with them on the elements of grief which are common to all who have suffered the loss of a way of life they were enjoying. We share the need for acceptance of our new circumstances and the challenge of responding in positive ways. Through coping with my own loss I’ve discovered that, despite the inescapable psychological and emotional pain, loss can be a valuable life experience and may actually serve to enrich our lives.

NEVERTHELESS, I can’t help feeling that my ability to identify falls pitifully short when considering that these individuals are expected to press on in a world of darkness while I enjoy the advantage of making all my adjustments in the light.

 BUT THEN, there’s more to living in the light than being blessed with 20/20 vision. On the Welcome Page you’ll find various definitions of “light” as well as “darkness” and the contrast between the two. The first and most basic description is that light is something which makes vision possible. This aspect of light is, of course, what our clients at the center are lacking; but we who are sighted in the physical sense have no advantage over them when it comes to any of the other facets of light. 

 TAKE FOR INSTANCE the reference to light as being something that enlightens or informs. My friends at the center are every bit as enlightened and often better informed than I.

WHEN IT COMES TO SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION the only thing which blinds is an unwillingness to see. In fact, I would venture to say the visually impaired just might have the advantage here; for the sighted are inclined to have their vision of “things unseen” blurred by the numerous distractions of the “things our eyes witness.” Whether sighted or blind, those whose eyes behold things unseen possess a vision which is truly unsurpassed. Scripture puts it this way, “For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal!”*

HOW CLEARLY do the eyes of your heart see?

ON LITTLE FARM ROAD our hearts see that:  "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."**

*2 Corinthians 4:18
**2 Corinthians 4:6