Sunday, September 18, 2016

Devotion

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art:
thou my best thought both by day and by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my soul's shelter, and thou my high tow'r,
raise thou me heav'nward, O Pow'r of my pow'r.

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise,
thou mine inheritance, now and always:
thou and thou only, the first in my heart,
great God of heaven, my treasure thou art.

Light of my soul, after victory won,
may I reach heaven's joys, O heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

I began wearing glasses when I was two. I had been diagnosed with amblyopia (commonly known as lazy eye); I had surgery to correct my vision and then wore glasses until I was in seventh grade. Most of those years, I hated wearing those glasses. I didn’t want to be different. I felt like I was the only one who had problems seeing.

Now I am getting to the age where I need to wear glasses again. Reading, driving, leading worship, I find I'm wearing my glasses more and more. I'm also getting to the age where I realize, as humans, we all need to have our vision corrected, and not just by the optometrist, but by God. All week our readings have pointed to the truth that God's ways are not our ways. May the Spirit open our eyes, hearts and minds, so our vision may grow as broad as the love of God and as big as God's vision for the world.