Good Eye
March 5, 2021
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During my senior year of high school, my basketball coach noticed I was squinting at the free throw line, so he suggested I get my vision checked out. I honestly thought my vision was normal, but the ophthalmologist informed me that I had 20/40 vision. I was seeing at twenty feet what people with normal vision could see at forty feet, which might explain my shooting percentage from the free throw line.
You can function pretty effectively with 20/40 vision—you can get your driver’s license, read print, and recognize faces. But you lack acuity. And distant objects look blurry.
I will never forget the car ride home after putting in contacts for the first time. I almost can’t put it into words. It was only a five-minute drive, and we’d made that drive a thousand times. But it was like I was seeing the world for the very first time! I remember seeing some pink and purple flowers that were so vivid and so colorful and so beautiful I could hardly believe my eyes.
I was finally able to see what had always been there.
The man born blind had to be overwhelmed by the images flying at him, but he saw them for what they are—miracles.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. (Matthew 6:22)
We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.
I can’t read this verse without hearing my Little League baseball coach yelling, “Good eye, good eye!” In the base-ball context, it means not swinging at bad pitches. In the biblical context, it means looking at things from a God’s-eye view. And when you look at life through your good eye, you discover that there is more to everything than meets the eye!
The only difference between seeing the miracles and not seeing them is which eye we’re looking with. Jewish rabbis made a distinction between a good eye and bad eye. Both had to do with a person’s attitude toward others. A bad eye turned a blind eye to the poor. A good eye referred to a person’s ability to see and seize every opportunity to be a blessing toward others.
Excerpted from The Grave Robber published by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.
In Mark’s book, The Grave Robber, we learn that our impossible situations are God’s greatest opportunity to reveal His glory. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that God still does miracles. We don’t expect Him to move in miraculous ways in our day-in and day-out lives. Maybe we’d like to see miracles, but it’s hard to see past our problems. All that is about to change, like water into wine.
Mark Batterson
Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. NCC also owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, The Miracle Theatre, and the DC Dream Center. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University and is the New York Times bestselling author of 17 books, including The Circle Maker, Chase the Lion, and Whisper. Mark and his wife, Lora, have three children and live on Capitol Hill.
Mark, thank you for your precious insight into God’s love for me and how He expresses it. every time I read your words of encouragement, I stand more firmly on Christ and who He is.