Now We See Darkly

Cataract surgery replaces a damaged, thickened, and discolored lens with a new perfectly functional replacement.  I carry cards in my wallet with the details of the prescriptions of each of my replacements lenses and have been delighted with the restoration of my proper visual abilities. Once I had the first surgery I was impatient to have the second surgery and complete the process.

The opthalmic surgeon performs the surgeries one eye at a time. This produces an odd situation. After my first surgery, my post-operative eye saw bright new intense colors with ultra-sharp delineation between white and black.  Not so with the pre-operative eye. What I saw was yellowed, dull, and faded, with incorrect color perceptions. I saw a green shirt as grey and could not distinguish some blues from some greens.  The scientific term for this phenomenon would be that the cataract had produced an acquired tritanopia.

Most people are spiritually asleep or, at best, walking around with a thick film over their eyes. When converted to Christianity, they suddenly see what has really been around them the entire time. Reality can be very shocking.  They become eager to complete the process.

Conversion changes your mind and your perception of the nature of reality. You have received the Holy Spirit and now are indwelled by the Mind of Christ. This enables you to see things as Jesus sees them.  You see things which once you could not see or understand. This is the beginning of the process of sanctification.

My eye! My eye!

I have to apologize for being gone from this blog for two weeks. I had to have surgery on my right eye. I had an artificial lens implanted to replace one damaged by a cataract and also a Descemet's membrane transplant to repair the damage done to my cornea by Fuch’s Dystrophy. Once the right eye is healed, the same surgeries will be performed on my left eye. It really is amazing what we can now do. One hundred and fifty years ago the Fuch’s Dystrophy would have eventually rendered me blind. The first full corneal transplant was performed in 1905. The Descemet's Membrane transplants have only been performed for the last twenty five years. See a video of the surgeries here. 

Think about this though, We probably will eventually be able to create artificial eyes but we cannot create an eye,  We cannot create a butterfly.  We cannot create a galaxy. And we cannot raise a man from the dead. Only our  Lord can do these things.