My wife recently went to an optometrist due to a flash of light that is intermittently occurring in one of her eyes. Before conducting a more thorough examination to find the source of this problem he first gave her an eye exam in which the optometrist discovered that her eyes were worse off than the “over the counter” reading glasses she was using. To determine her visual acuity he checked her vision with the phoropter by asking her questions as he changed the lens, such as, how does that look or appear, is that clearer, is that better, so on and so forth.
Apart from this subjective questioning he also would have used a more objective method by utilizing a retinoscope or autorefractor to project light into her pupil as to measure and study the light reflex. This is pretty much a standard procedure to determine the refractive error of the eyes with the intent of correcting her vision to a more normal condition.
As a starting point, another basic and quick method to see how well our eyes are functioning is by using the Snellen Eye Chart. By reading lines of letters the standard or optimal range for our eyesight is determined to be somewhere around 20/20 whereas most humans are unable to see any better than 20/10 and anything worse than 20/40 means that a corrective lens is needed just to drive a vehicle.
What really got my attention to this whole process was a dialogue that took place between the optometrist and my wife who was having difficulty in understanding his point of reference as English is not my wife’s first language or culture. This disparity over word usage challenged the patience of the optometrist in trying to explain the matter that at one point he asked me if I could make her understand what he meant.
One comical exchange that took place was when the optometrist was trying to convince my wife that her vision needed correction in order to see better and my wife in turn told him my vision is just fine, so better than what? The optometrist said that her vision was not normal according to his examination which she had agreed to as looking through the various lenses as contrasting her normal vision to an enhancement made available through his instruments. There were other side conversations that took place as well which contested his judgments but basically the outcome of his trained and experienced observation was that she was losing her eyesight regardless of denial or unawareness and her first clue should have been the purchase of her reading glasses.
This is somewhat like the human condition in that just like our eyes, which typically function better when they are youthful, so does our moral aptitude which is generally more insightful as seeing our true condition which isn’t blurred or distorted as damaged by living life. I am told that the eye has the capacity to adapt to trying to correct our visual handicaps much like we try to do when we don’t quite measure up to the standard of God’s law which is plainly written upon our hearts so as to correctly see the chart of right and wrong, good and evil, as either justifying or condemning our behavior,Romans 1: 18-32, 2:14-16.
What happens as adults we challenge the Eye Maker through sophisticated adaptations or arguments as denying we have any seeing problems to begin with by avoiding the eye doctor all together, redefining our own way of looking at the chart through the subjectivity of relativism as seeing an E as possibly an M, W or an F, by comparing our sight with others as average or a little better or a little worse, or by outright not wearing our glasses at all for whatever reason or excuse, etc., etc.
However the conscious is God’s visual cue to the inner eye to view the symptoms of guilt and shame in our lives. God’s light manifestly reveals this in a language that we all can see and understand so that we are without excuse. The good news is that by examining His revelatory word we can more perfectly recognize that He has given us eyes to see the hope of Truth as in Christ apart from the condemnation for those who refuse to see it God’s way.
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*Aspects of this blog post are paraphrased