"HAVING EYES TO SEE"

“HAVING EYES TO SEE”

When David and Susan were young children, they loved to hunt for Easter eggs.  We had a HUGE egg hunt at Oakhurst after worship on Easter, and when we got home, we would again hide the eggs for the kids to try to find.  This process of hiding and finding could go on for two weeks after Easter (we learned quickly not to use hard-boiled eggs for this lengthy process).  One of the more memorable parts of this game was to hide the eggs “in plain sight,” where they were both visible and invisible.  Our favorite quote for this part of the game was: “You have to have eyes to see,” meaning that the egg was sort of visible in its hiddenness, but the seeker had to see it in just the right way in order to “see” it and find it.

I was reminded of this saying during the journey of my first cataract surgery this week.   I give thanks that it seems to have gone well, but I am even more aware now of what a gift is sight, both literal and figurative sight.  A day after the surgery, as the cloudiness in my right eye began to clear, I reminded myself of how much I have taken “seeing” for granted, even though I have worn glasses for almost 60 years.  I still have blurriness in reading, and that is frustrating, but I know that can be corrected.  Yet, still, having eyes to see is such a gift.

When I have been resting my eyes this week, I have listened to some cassette tapes (yes, I still have those and the player that accompanies them).  I recorded these tapes in the fall, 2003, when I read to my mother, who was staying with us while she underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer.  She had macular degeneration and could no longer see well enough to read. She loved to read, and this loss of sight was a terrible affliction for her.   She was a big fan of the writing of Marcus Borg, and his latest book on the Bible had just been published.  So, I got the book and read it to her.  As usual, she interrupted me often to ask questions and make comments.  And, I’m so glad that she did, because I can still hear her voice, 17 years after her death.  

    The Bible frequently uses this image of having eyes to see, usually in a negative sense, meaning that those of us captured by the powers and principalities have eyes but cannot see.  In his book, Borg uses this image of “having eyes to see,” meaning having (or being given) the ability to “see” things or structures that had previously been hidden from us.  Mother and I talked about my having observed Black people as a boy, but I had never “seen” them as human beings until my eyes had been opened through several conversion experiences.  She also noted that she had never really seen LGBTQ+ people as people until she discovered that one of our beloved family relatives was gay.  Then her eyes were opened.  We noted in our discussion that this is the dynamic that Jesus and the prophets used when they talked of people who are “stubborn” and refuse to see, even though they have eyes to see.  I’ve thought of this discussion often in these days of Covid denial and anti-vaxxers, as something that seems so simple has become so complicated and so deadly.

As I think about this metaphor of “seeing” this week, I am noting that it is both literal and figurative.  My literal, physical vision has been altered this week by my cataract surgery, and in just this small way, I give thanks for the gift of sight.  I also think of people like my mother and many others who lost most or all of their sight.  A terrible, terrible thing to experience.  Yet, I’m also reminded of the many people who have survived and even thrived with limited or no ability to physically see.  

Listening to the tapes of Mother and me this week recalled the stories of Jesus’ healing many blind people, both literally and figuratively.  Indeed, in Luke 4, in his first sermon at his home synagogue in Nazareth he told of his mission, which included “bringing sight to the blind.”  Those stories are reminders of the depth of our captivity to many powers which seek to blind us and to bind out hearts to death and domination.  They also remind us that conversions, including cataract surgeries, are available, if “we have eyes to see.”  And, of course, that is the major question for our time, and for every time:  “How do we find eyes to see?”  More on that question next time.