I Once Was Blind but Now I See!
Photo by Karen Gibson
Nearly every day is filled with small blessings, some bordering on the miraculous, if we look for them. However, my cataracts diagnosis in 2019 took me by surprise and I saw no good in it. My eyesight was poor with the left eye legally blind and the right eye nearly so. I asked people to speak my name because I couldn’t see their face from a few feet away. For over 15 years, I had limited my night driving and began to lose depth perception. I felt vulnerable not being able to clearly see and feared tripping, not seeing a car or some other danger.
My surgeon was frank with me: my vision was so poor and with my repaired retinal detachment, she was not promising anything. I was to stop wearing contacts to prepare for surgery. The reality hit: I could no longer drive! I grew depressed and anxious. My friend Kathy suggested: “Ellen, why don’t you treat this surgery like one of your events and plan for it?” Her advice helped me spring into action. I lined up needed drivers. Next came a project schedule, which received approval, so that I could work from home. Despite being able to barely see, I kept busy. My family and friends took me on trips to gardens, museums, and dinner. Fay reminded me: “I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you” (Isaiah 46:4). This powerful Scripture calmed my spirit and set the course for the next few months.
The first surgery date was August 6, and Avon took me to the surgery center. I felt God’s overwhelming peace and was encouraged that family and friends were praying for me. When I shared with my surgeon that many were praying for her, she replied, “Thank you, my family prays for me every day I am in surgery.”
Within 20 minutes the doctor removed the stabilizing instrument in my eye and I sat up. I started to cry because I saw better than I had ever seen as a child! The tears came from deep inside me. I hugged my surgeon; she told me to stop crying because she didn’t want anything to happen to my eye!
The next several days were completely surreal. It felt as if someone had put a tiny computer in my eye. Before I couldn’t see across the street to my neighbor’s front door and now, I could see it as well as the details of her garden. Feeling like a spy, I was able to focus on things at a great distance and noticed amazing details like a wisp of wheat along the roadside and the facial features of a jogger. So many things I’d never been able to see!
The second surgery was equally successful. My new vision tested at 20/25 in both eyes! Did I mention my previous eyesight was 20/400 and 20/200? My vision has been restored nearly three years and I still get distracted when I’m driving or walking. I never tire of this amazing gift of sight.
Just as my physical vision was repaired in a miraculous way, we can experience a rebirth when we invite Christ into our life. It begins with a heartfelt plea for His help. Like a surgeon giving a diagnosis, Christ shows us the desperate state of our hearts. Once we acknowledge and receive the gift of relationship with Christ, like the blind man of the Bible we can say, “I once was blind but now I see.”
There is overwhelming comfort knowing that God will sustain you. He has made you and will carry you through your entire life. Each day overflows with blessings; ask God to open the eyes of your heart to see them.
