Depth Perception: Seeing with the Heart

  On December 9th I had surgery to implant a radiation plaque into my right eye. Doctors left the radiation in place at the back of my eye for 4 days. Now several weeks later my right eye is suffering some of the effects of that radiation beyond the goal of killing the melanoma tumor. My vision is now quite poor in that eye. One of the surprising impacts on my vision is that my depth perception has been reduced.
  Depth perception is the visual ability to see in 3 dimensions and to perceive correctly the distance of an object. Shortly after returning from Birmingham I realized that my depth perception was deeply impacted by the poor vision in my right eye. Mary was driving me to a dinner date when I falsely perceived that we were about to hit something in the road.... I screamed out to Mary to avoid something that was not as it appeared! It takes binocular vision (2 eyes) to accurately perceive the distance of an object. Now with one eye's vision markedly reduced, I have to relearn how to perceive both depth perception and sensation. We all desperately need accurate vision to live in this world.... and the next.
  You might not have a physical vision problem. You might have excellent vision and not even require glasses or other assistance to see clearly. Be grateful for the ability to move around in your environment without danger or fear. Vision is a great gift and a complex physical phenomenon that requires so many things to work together perfectly to enable you to see clearly. But there is another kind of vision that we also need to be aware of. There is a spiritual vision.... a vision of the heart that can be damaged by the sin in our lives. Jesus addressed the need for a 'clean heart' that would enable us to see the matters of the heart accurately.
  In the gospel of Matthew chapter 5 and verse 8, Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  In a world of spiritual darkness and desperation there is another kind of vision we all  need.... we need to see the invisible and eternal things to get the 'depth perception' we need. There is a 4th dimension that most of us never see or perceive. It takes faith.... it takes a second birth to see into the forever reality of God. Our physical senses can't take us where we were born to live forever. We need spiritual eyes.
  There is a surgery of the heart that God performs when we come to the place of conviction of our own brokenness and need of him. Right now my physical vision has been damaged by a cancerous tumor. I am believing that God is healing the physical damage caused by that tumor and the radiation treatment designed to kill it. At the same time that my physical depth perception has been reduced my spiritual perception has been increased. I am seeing God in so many ways ..... with a depth perception of the soul. I am seeing more with my heart than I ever have.  My prayer is that I would see what God sees...feel what God feels....hear what God hears.  It's often when we're hurting in some way in our lives that we have the unique opportunity to gain compassion and concern for others beyond ourselves. It's in those moments that we can experience a vision of things previously unseen....I want to see with my heart the things that really matter. Open the eyes of my heart Lord. I want to see you.

Jim