My expensive prescription glasses went flying. As four pairs of hands reached to corral the basketball as it bounded off the backboard, my glasses (I think) were accidentally knocked off my face. The game sputtered to a halt as my friends quickly looked at their feet.
The glasses were nowhere to be seen on our makeshift basketball court. They had flown further afield, and that was a problem. We had shoveled snow off our basketball court so we could play, and now piles of shoveled snow ringed the court. Somewhere in those piles, my glasses had landed and sunk out of sight into the frozen precipitation. It took a few moments, but we eventually found them.
Prescription spectacles had been the bane of my existence since the fourth grade. I hated them, and I hated having to wear them. However, the vision in my left eye was ridiculously bad without correction. Depth perception was a constant problem without my glasses. Unfortunately, accurate depth perception is somewhat necessary when it comes to trying to put a basketball through a basketball hoop.
My problem lay in the fact that I needed to see to play sports. On the other hand, losing, breaking, and scratching my glasses was something at which I seemed to excel, and it also drove my parents crazy. To preserve my glasses for as long as possible, my mom and dad insisted I wear thick, heavy, black plastic frames. I despised them. They spent more time shoved into my pocket than on my face. While my best friend got to wear ultra-cool, round, wire-frame, John Lennon glasses, I was stuck wearing glasses that looked like something Clark Kent would wear.
But no matter how nerdy I looked wearing them, my glasses were vitally necessary. They brought my world into clear focus.
Viewing and navigating our fallen world also requires corrective lenses. The Bible and God’s Holy Spirit give us the glasses we need to view a wicked world flawlessly. When applied to our perception of the world, God’s Word enables us to discern His loving will for us. The Holy Spirit steers us around potholes in our road and rocks in our river. Both act as spiritual glasses as we journey toward knowing our Lord with all our hearts.
Wear your spiritual glasses. Don’t be like me and shove them in your pocket. They don’t do a bit of good when they aren’t on your nose.
Kevin Spencer likes to play with words, help others play with them, and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives with his beautiful blessing of a wife, Charlotte, and his amazing collegiate grandson, Caleb.