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“If We Could Only See”

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"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31. The Lord has been giving me this little article for a couple of weeks now and it has been such a blessing to watch it unfold. It's true that some of the things that He used to convey it to me have not at the time seemed like a blessing, but in the end they really are. It is my prayer that He will use this little article as a very real and lasting blessing to the hearts and lives of all those who will read it.

Those of you who are regular readers of these articles know some of the trouble I have been having lately with what I used to call my good eye. Well, I hope you will be as happy as I am to learn that I have finally gotten over the ordeal with the piece of steel in my eye and that I have finally gotten me some glasses that I can see with. It is true that many of us with age and some even from birth, have difficulty seeing. Some people even cannot see at all. Now, I don't pretend to know why God allows these various degrees of vision difficulties to happen to us. But I do know that He indeed does allow it. And I do know that He does indeed have a purpose for it. Through His wonderful grace and mercy however, He has given some of us the intelligence to overcome these difficulties no matter to what extent they are.

If I have gotten my glasses now, why then is the title of this little article, "If We Could Only See", and why the scripture verses about the sparrows? Good question, and I'm glad you asked, because that question is the very heart of this little article. To me, it was quite an ordeal the Lord brought me through with my eyesight. But He has allowed me to see more clearly now than I have ever seen before and by His wonderful grace, my vision is going to improve as time goes on. Now, I realize that some of you may find that hard to believe, but I hope that before this little article is finished you will agree with me.

This past Monday night, I was blessed to be able to go to a tent revival in a place called Flat Creek, North Carolina, which is a community of Weaverville, North Carolina. Now I had never been to a tent revival before and to me, it was quite an experience. In more ways than one. The reason I traveled such a distance to this revival is because the speaker in this revival was a man that I consider to be the greatest preacher of the Gospel of Christ of at least this century. His name is J. Harold Smith and the sermon he preached really hit the spot as it was just what the Lord was giving to me for this article. No, I'm not going to steal his sermon, although he would not mind if I did. I will only use the title of his sermon as it is sufficient to the intent of this article. The title of his sermon was, "Church Cripples" and he told of how that there are many people in our churches today who are crippled spiritually. This is indeed true and when we see a person with a withered hand or foot or some other such infirmity, we most often do consider them to be crippled. But when we see a person with glasses on or even led by a seeing eye dog, we don't consider that as being crippled.

There are truly a lot of people in our churches today who spiritually need the aid of a wheel chair or a cane or braces, but there are just as many people in and out of our churches today, who really need the aid of spiritual glasses and sadly, some who even need a spiritual seeing eye dog. The truth be known, what many of them need is God's eye salve, which is to have their spiritual eyes opened by the Lord Jesus Christ. Friend, I know what I'm talking about, because I've been there. I was once a blind church member and I was lost and on my way to hell. But by God's wonderful grace and mercy, I met Jesus and He caused me to see.

But there are those, and many of them, who have had their spiritual eyes opened by the Lord, but have had them dimmed by Satan. Now these precious saints of God, and they are saints, are stumbling around trying to use spiritual glasses to make it through this life. I know that to many, these dear people may not look very much like saints, but if they have been wasked in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are saints forevermore. We all my friend, from time to time, find our spiritual eyes a little dimmed and we need to look to Jesus and keep our focus on Him. That brings me to my glasses. I had made an appointment to have my eyes (or eye) examined by a doctor, but in my desperation to see like I used to, I went to Wal-Mart and got me some glasses off the shelf. Those glasses did fine for looking close up, but I could not see far off. That's the way many of us are spiritually and we find ourselves going in and out of seeing and then not seeing. We can see right here and now, but we cannot see out yonder in the future. Well, I could tell that these glasses were not going to work, so I took them back and they so courteously exchanged them and I got me some bi-focals. Now, I had a really hard time adjusting to these bi-focals and through my inexperience, I found myself giving up the struggle of constantly adjusting my eye position to see over that line. Again, I got my wife to take these glasses back and she could not find anything that was better suited for me. Many times we find ourselves losing in our struggle to keep our spiritual focus in the right place suited for the circumstances we find ourselves in. So many times, we find ourselves giving up and when we do, we are back to where we started from.

After looking everywhere for some glasses that I could wear and not being able to find any, my wife said that she was going to call the doctor's office and try to get me an earlier appointment. I discouraged it by telling her that they had said they were booked up until October. A few days passed and seeing how miserable I was not being able to see, my wife said that she was going to call the doctor anyway. When she called and explained to the person who answered the phone what our situation was, the person who answered the phone said, "I'm not believing this, but someone just hung up the phone who called and cancelled their appointment for Wednesday." My friend, that was not luck, nor was it coincidence. I believe with all my heart that the Lord caused that to work out that way and that it would fit right in with this little article He was giving me.

Well, on Tuesday night, the day before my doctor's appointment, we were blessed to go back to Flat Rock, North Carolina for yet another wonderful sermon by my friend J. Harold Smith. Preacher Smith did not title this sermon, but it was about the disciples of Jesus filling the six waterpots with water at Jesus' command when at the marriage feast and the Lord turning that water into wine. He told of how that the Mother of Jesus had told the disciples to do whatever Jesus told them to do and how that when Jesus told them to fill those six waterpots with water, they filled them to the brim. They did not just put water in the pots, but they filled them to the brim or they put it all in there. Then he told of the miracle the Lord had done in pouring wine out of those waterpots. He told how that we as Christians need to have six waterpots and to fill them. It is extremely important that I share those six waterpots with you, so that you too may experience the miracles the Lord pours out to His children when they cannot see like they should.

In waterpot #1 we should put all our sins (all of them) and the Lord will pour out all His forgiveness. In waterpot #2 we should put all our prayers (all of them) and the Lord will pour out all His answers. In waterpot #3 we should put all our problems (all of them) and the Lord will pour out all His solutions. In waterpot #4 we should put all our sorrows (all of them) and the Lord will pour out all His comfort. In waterpot #5 we should put all our needs (all of them) and the Lord will pour out all His supply. In waterpot #6 we should put all our future (all of it) and the Lord will pour out all His eternity. What a wonderful sermon this was and a very real and lasting blessing to my own heart and to my dear wife as well.

The sermon was not the only blessing I received that night concerning my vision and that of many other saints of God. There was a lot of singing before the message and one of the songs sung that night was, "His Eye Is On The Sparrow". Now, I have heard this song many times prior to that night, but it had never touched my heart quite like it did that night. On the way home that night, I found out why. It would rain awhile and then quit and then rain some more. We had to drive slow during those times of hard rain. At one of the times when it was not raining, as we were coming down I-26 at about 10 o'clock at night, we hit an I-beam that was in the road. The impact threw the right side of my wife's car up in the air. At the time, we didn't know what we had hit, but we knew we had hit it hard and that it was very large. As my wife and I discussed it, I mentioned that it could have done some damage to the car and we decided to pull over at the next exit and check it out. When we got pulled over, we discovered that we had burst two tires. It wasn't long before another Honda Accord pulled in at the same place who had also hit the I-beam and who had also burst two tires. And then an 18 wheeler pulled in who had hit it and had burst at least one tire.

As soon as we hit that thing, that song, "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" came to my mind and as the right side of that car flew up in the air, it was as if I could just see the hand of God holding it down and keeping it from flipping over. As I discussed that with my wife she said, "Yes, and had it not been pouring down rain moments earlier, we would not have had to go so slow and we could have been right behind the truck that lost that I-beam and we could have been struck with it." My friend, we could not see that I-beam, but God saw it. And we could not have kept that car from flipping over at 70+ miles per hour, but God could. Call me a bird if you want to, but His eye definitely is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.

And then I had my doctor's appointment and got my prescription. When we went to the vision center to have the prescription filled, I got the real prescription as I was introduced to a pair of glasses called, "Progressive Vision". My friends, that's just the prescription that we as Christians need as we live and grow in our walk with the Lord. Progressive vision. We cannot see all the I-beams and other obstacles we will run into in our paths, but if we will indeed just put it all (all of it) in those waterpots and just trust Him with what He pours out, we will not have to worry about whether we can always see right here and now or way out in the future. And after all these experiences the Lord led us through in giving me this little article, my wife and I have found a seventh waterpot that we should indeed put it all in. That seventh waterpot is the waterpot of praise. Let us fill that waterpot to the brim as He pours out all His love and mercy and grace upon us.

I cannot close this article before making mention of a sign in front of a church in Inman, South Carolina which reads, "How can we expect God to come through when we don't". Now I am sure that the one or ones who put that sign up had the best of intentions, but the answer to that question is, "Because God is greater than we are!". And it is called grace. Wonderful grace, marvellous grace, infinite grace. Grace that is greater than all my sins.