Fix Your Eyes

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Standing waiting for buses as a kid, I always could read which one it was before everyone else.

At the age of 16 I went to get my eyes tested, as part of the preliminaries for joining the Police Cadets, I whizzed through the usual chart on the wall, and just to be smart read out the tiny writing at the bottom saying where the chart was made and who by. They put me on some other machines, testing for colour blindness and then depth perception – I recall looking down a tunnel and having to say what position various dots were on targets.

At the end of the session, the Doctor said, “Well Mr Delaney, you have sniper vision.”

I was devastated! I had wanted to be in the police so much, but I had some awful condition that he’d just diagnosed?

Er, no.

He just meant I had really good eyesight. I was in – though he probably wanted to send me back for a resit on the intelligence test.

Now at 43, I had my first ever moment of uncertainty about my eyes a few weeks ago. A long and busy day, a change of light, and trying to read instructions for the music system in a hotel room and all I could see was a blur! It was awful! Being married to an ophthalmic nurse helped reassure me that I’m not necessarily going to be wearing glasses any time soon, but that little incident did make me realise how often I take my eyesight for granted. I heard that Wesley’s

A woman got on a train and entered a compartment where a man was sitting staring out of the window. He’d see a cow, a horse, even a tree and exclaim, “How wonderful!”

The woman rode the train every day on this journey and after a while she had to ask, “What’s so wonderful?”

“I just had my cataracts removed,” came the reply, “Everything is wonderful!”

For years I’ve supported a charity called Sightsavers, helping the poor in over thirty countries to have access to treatment and eye care. They do amazing work, and whether you have perfect vision or have had help to be able to see more clearly, man-in-blue-with-eye-exam.jpgI encourage you to look at how you might help others to see.