Rose Colored Glasses


Perhaps you've seen this video. William, now turning 66 years old, has a condition of color blindness. There are many types of color blindness which distort the colors of the world around them. In the description of this video, they describe his colorblindness as causing him to only see in black and white. Well, for his birthday present, family members chipped in and purchased him a special pair of sunglasses. A quick search showed these glasses could be around 500 beans! These glasses are called Enchroma glasses. They somehow adjust the light entering his eyes. So when William wears the glasses, his eyes can somehow perceive the adjusted light and this enables him to see colors. This video is the moment where he received those glasses an he was able to see colors in the world for the first time. Feel free to check out that video now. It's fine, I'll wait. I'll be right here when you return.


Welcome back, sport. I'm glad you returned. Needless to say, I was moved by this video. His expression of joy and amazement is priceless. He seems overwhelmed with the sight of the world as he has never seen it before. I can't imagine living 66 years without the sense of color. Then, on this occasion, he was given a gift which allowed him to see the world - the world as it has always been - but he is seeing it with a new set of eyes. It obviously was a profound experience. His video is not an isolated case. There are more videos similar to this one, if you do some searching.

I read the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 13:12-13, and this got me thinking.

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Paul says that when he enters heaven and faces the Lord, he will overflow with the knowledge of God in a way he can’t fathom now. And God has already has known him fully, so his knowledge of God will be filled in a new and more complete way that can occur here and now in this life. It's like Paul is saying that he lacks the senses or abilities to fully understand God. And he isn't alone in that statement. Other biblical accounts of people coming face to face with God respond in similar ways. It's like our finite senses just can't grab a hold of the infinitude of God. Moses has to be hidden in a rock. Isaiah falls over like he was dead as does John in the book of Revelation.

We just don't have the capacity to comprehend God. And so after our lives, however long they are, we will die and face our maker. And in his glory we will be welcomed because of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We will experience life, true life, with new eyes. We will see our finished life on earth with new eyes, too. Eyes that will be able to understand how God was at work through our highs and our lows. We will see how God called us and shaped us through a myriad of ordinary means into vessels of his making. We will be given new sense with which to comprehend the world. New means to understand each other. New eyes to see God, each other, ourselves. We will have a greater awareness of hos God's love was at work in our short lives. Now I see in part, Paul says, but then we shall see fully and completely. And we will be overwhelmed. If you can imagine, we will be more overwhelmed than William was to receive colored vision. We will be more overwhelmed because what we will be enabled to behold is the Throne of Heaven. We will get glasses that help us see our King of Glory in all the majesty and splendor due him.

May we pray that God would enable us, beginning today, to see the world in a new way.
God, help me to understand more of your majesty and dominion and glory and splendor.
Help me to be captivated by your beauty and to delight in you. And may I be overwhelmed by your love poured into my heart by the power of your Holy Spirit.

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