"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found, t'was blind but now I see." - John Newton

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"

- Ancient Chinese Proverb

My wife has new glasses, and in spite of her young age she now requires bifocals to see things. I remember when my dad got his bifocals, the funny line across the lens where the focus changed used to drive him nuts, so much so that he finally gave up and just decided he didn't need to see anything small anymore. Deniese is struggling with hers; she tips her head down to see out the top while driving and it's a pain in the neck (literally!) Yet we know it could be a lot worse.

I read an account once of a patient who lost vision in one eye. It was a famous painter, and because the depth perception was ruined felt that his life was over, that life was no longer worth living. No one could encourage this man, until one day he was shown wonderful sculptures created by another artist nearby. His friend who showed him the works of art took him to see the sculptor, in spite of a lot of protests that the one-eyed man could never manage it himself with his new limitation. You can probably guess that the sculptor he took him to was, of course, blind. Yet with his hands he could see very, very well.

But really, what my wife's glasses reminded me of was the medical case in England a few years back where a young man had been in a car accident and the front of his head was severely cut. He'd lost one eye outright and the other was reattached by a doctor. Unfortunately the optic nerve had somehow been attached upside down, thus everything he saw was upside down. This condition persisted for about 2-3 days, and then one morning he woke up and everything was right side up. What had happened? His brain apparently just said "Enough of this!" and compensated for him. In fact an experiment was then done where researchers volunteered to wear glasses that made everything upside down. Again, after a few days the person's brain took care of it and made the swap. Now some doctors speculate that babies possibly see things upside down for a few days after birth, until their brains learn to handle this.

Why would babies need to learn this? Well, because everything you and l see with our eyes is upside down! Yes, the image inside your eye on the back of your retina, that gets sent to your brain, is upside down. That wonderful organ turns it right side up for us (and also blends two different images into one, now isn't that handy?)

And there my friends is what I was thinking. Paul was accused, by his enemies, of turning the world upside down with this new revelation, this preaching, this gospel of Christ. Too bad what they couldn't grasp is that the teaching of the world, just like they eyes of everyone, is what's actually upside down. But when everything is upside down you get used to it - the truth delivered from God becomes that which seems wrong and out of place! Yet the beauty and grace it contains for us, once we accept it, ends up with our being the only ones in the world that can truly see things right side up, as God intended, something that I don't need literal eyes to see. Satan would love to blind us to it, but as long as we have but one eye to see in this land of the blind, we rule!

Randy