Christian's Glasses

My youngest brother's glasses came in today. As you can probably tell, he isn't very happy. We keep telling him that he looks great in them and people will think he's even smarter than he already is, but the change is just too much for him to handle. I can't blame him. At his age, he shouldn't have to deal with that all of a sudden.

Christian's eyesight problems came as a shock to us - we only just found out this month that he's had terrible vision all of his life. I never would have known it, but he's spent all eight years of his life seeing blurry pictures (he completely flunked the vision test... had to guess at the second line of letters). He's always seemed to view things normally, though he always did sit too close to the TV and the computer. We warned him that it would affect his vision, but what we didn't know was that it was already affected and he was compensating. Another reason we didn't realize was that he started reading at an early age and always read very well.

He cried for a long time after the eye doctor told him he would need glasses. He told me after calming down a little that when he picked out his glasses, he just picked a random pair. He didn't care what he had, because he didn't want to wear them. He got angry today after we received them and refused to put them on for a while. I think he looks great in them, but he says he hates how they look. I think what he mostly hates is the fact that he'll have to wear them almost all the time and doesn't have a choice.

I've always thought that glasses were cool and wished I could wear them. In reality, though, I'm sure I would feel restricted just like him. Earlier today, when he refused to put on his glasses (which he is thankfully now getting more used to wearing), God showed me something about my life which I thought was pretty cool. I don't know if you'd call it a silver lining, but it's something positive that's come from Christian's unhappiness.

When Christian first put the glasses on, his eyes weren't corrected right away. In fact, if they're ever 20/20, we don't know when. The doctors are hoping for at least 20/30. So he's really discouraged, because his vision isn't any better and now he's got all these things he has to do to make sure his glasses don't get damaged. He always has to keep the glasses on, and he doesn't get to see the results.

Life as Christian is now analogous to life as a Christian. We strive to be like Christ, but it doesn't happen instantly. It takes time. We don't know when we'll be perfected, and in the meantime we have a bunch of rules we have to follow. Not to mention we have to put on the armor of God and keep it on all the time. We won't see the results of our good works until heaven, but we have to persevere in the hope that one day our vision will be like His: perfect. When our vision lines up with his, all will be right. Just like Christian needs his glasses, we Christians need Christ to help us see.

There's something this analogy doesn't cover, though. Christian doesn't have a relationship with his glasses. However, he does have a relationship with Jesus. Even if his never improved (thank you God, it will), his life would still be preserved for all eternity.


See? He looks great when he smiles. :)