At the start of the year, I scribbled down My 2020 Vision. And then the world changed. So I looked up the meaning of “20/20 vision.” Here’s what I learned:
20/20 isn’t perfect, it’s simply normal. The first 20 represents the ability to see clearly from 20 feet away; the second represents your ability. So if someone brags about having “20/20,” they’re actually bragging about having normal vision. True, not everyone does. But it’s like bragging about having an orange belt in karate, which is only about 1/3rd of the way to a black belt. Good. But not exactly sell-your-story-to-Hollywood good.
Better yet, some people have 20/10 vision, allowing them to see at 20 feet away (twice as far) what 20/20ers can only see at 10. There are even a few people with 20/5. Now, that’s sell-your-story-to-Hollywood good!
Ophthalmologically speaking (say that three times fast), there are three components to vision (spiritual metaphor alert):
- The cornea lets light in. To mix metaphors, the good seeds of truth (Mark 4:3-9) are scattered in people’s hearts, but don’t always produce life (or, in this case, light).
- The lens focuses light. This is where vision, like seeds, sprouts. Or doesn’t. Cataracts, distortions, can cloud a lens’s ability to focus the light (truth), just as bitterness, obsessions, lust, greed and other delusions can cloud our ability to process truth.
- The retina gathers the info that reaches it and turns it into signals we can understand and act upon, truly see. But if light (truth) never reaches it, we’re spiritually blind.
Years ago, when I worked at a bookstore, a young man came in carrying a Satanic Bible. He wanted to check it against a Bible, he said, to see which one “offers the best deal.” When I suggested he ask, instead, which one “offers the truth,” he brayed like a donkey. Talk about a distorted lens.
How’s your vision? Is your lens correctly focusing the light, asking only what’s right and true, or is it distorted? I know an Ophthalmologist who has 20/∞ vision, who, amazingly, teaches people to see through His eyes (2 Corinthians 4:18). Warning: the treatment is expensive–everything you have–but it’s worth it. Because only He can see…
To infinity and beyond.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your vision is clear, your whole body will be full of light.” ~Matthew 6:22
Mitch Teemley 
“20/∞ vision”? I think (from your explanation) you meant “∞/20 vision”. ..? Or am I (still) confused?
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The first number is normal human vision, the latter is for the person being tested. I figured if God was tested the latter would be His vision number.
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OK, I was thinking He’d see at infinity feet what we’d need to be within 20 feet to see. I need. If 20/10 or 20/5 was great, ∞/20 would be even more awesome, but maybe this isn’t about fractions… Oh well, I’ll take your word for it. 😉
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Ah, gotcha. Same idea, just a different way of looking at it (no pun intended).
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Of course, the higher we are, the farther we can see – that’s why “He makes my feet like hind’s feet and sets me on the high places.” When I think of the “belt of truth,” I picture a lot of different kinds of belts, but my favorite is the mountain climber’s belt – it keeps me attached to the One at the top, as I climb higher, farther from the world, closer to Him. If I stumble, I don’t fall to my death, and if I slip, He won’t let me backslide and have to start all over… OK, I’m digressing. Point is, He can make our vision more like His as we get closer to Him. (That’s why I’m … ) 😉
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(This from the gal who called her blog “Seeking Divine Perpsective” for a year…)
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I have glasses, correcting my eyes to 20/20.
The metaphors for that are endless.
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Yes, you are right. The light that is allowed into the eye determines the ‘light’ or ‘darkness’ in the body. Jesus goes on to say that if all that enters the eye is darkness, then it is important to know just how great that darkness is — because no man/woman can serve two masters. Either we walk in the light, as He is in the light, or we walk in darkness — in which matter Satan is the master. He said we cannot serve both God and mammon. Thank You for sharing such an important part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount! God Bless!
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You too, TK!
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matthew 6:47
verily verily
i say unto thee
he that has everlasting life
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Love how you take the ordinary and relate it back to Truth. Thanks for the inspiration, Mitch.
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My privilege, Terese.
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My vision is corrected to 20/20, but I sure didn’t see THIS 2020 coming. Good to know Someone Else did and has it well in hand. Thanks, as always, for the nudge and inspiration, Mitch.
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Everything we have is a more than fair exchange for seeing the truth. It is, after all, the truth that sets us free.
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Unique, informative and very catchy…
I’m thinking you got a thumbs up from heaven for this one!!
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Always fruitful to consider your insights Mitch.
Stay well
Regards Thom
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Thanks, Thom. You too.
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1 John 1:5 …God is light. Just read this, then your blog!
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Ah, God’s timing.
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The spiritual metaphor is really clever, and I must admit that I never gave much thought to what “20/20” signifies.
BTW, that guy in the book store went on to work for Fox News and proclaim his willingness to “swear on a stack of Bibles that President Trump is doing a great job.” But he doesn’t say which kind of Bible.
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I don’t wear my glasses nearly often enough, and not just the ones I got from specsavers!
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