Exercising Vision

I was twenty one years old she was ageless. One day when we were walking together she paused and stood quietly looking into the distance. I asked her what she was looking at and that was when she taught me how to exercise my vision. "Find the farthest place on the horizon,' she said, 'and focus on it."

Now that I no longer measure my life by years but by decades I often exercise my vision. I look intently to the horizon where time and eternity meet. It is there I see the One who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. "God is enthroned above the circle of the earth; its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in...He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing." (Isaiah 40:12,22)

When I was twenty one I learned that in order to exercise my vision I needed to be willing to pause, to quiet myself, to look beyond where I was until I could truly see. I learned then that focusing on the farthest point on the horizon not only exercised my vision it also gave me perspective. By exercising my vision I have leaned the perspective of place of time and of eternity.

I sit by my grandchild's bed. I gently place my hand on their closed eyes. Their days are filled with sight. Now that they are still I pray that they will have vision. I close my eyes until I can see the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I quiet myself and pray. I pray that they will be rooted and firmly established in love and that they, "may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God's love."(Ephesians 3:18)  I also pray that God will give me the opportunity to teach them how to exercise their vision.