Seeing 20/20 in the year 2020
Like everyone, I have an original thought from time to time. Yet I cannot take credit for the brilliant title or theme of this article. I’m not sure where I first saw or read it, but connecting how well we see things to this year’s date is a natural. So I would like to expound on it a bit for our inspiration and encouragement. Simply put, seeing 20/20 is seeing God for who He truly is, and then seeing ourselves, others and things in life from His perspective.
In the Bible, we have a lot of good examples of people who saw 20/20, but I would like to cite just a couple for our consideration. After Job went through all his suffering and loss, he said to God, “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen you!” (Job 42:5) Sometimes, unfortunately, it takes some suffering and loss in life to enable us to see things from God’s perspective. Dealing with things that are beyond our own ability or capacity forces us to look beyond ourselves to the Only One Who can and does. We are therefore encouraged to remember that God can use the difficult things in our lives to draw us closer to Himself, and enable us to see those difficulties in the light of His love for us.
And then Isaiah the prophet had a vision of the Lord, from which he declared: “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne”… “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:1, 5)
Seeing the Lord for Who He truly is will always remind us of who we are in comparison to Him, and our sinfulness compared to His holiness. That can be a fearful thing, until we also hear what the angel said to Isaiah, that his sin had been atoned for, and God’s touch had made him clean (verses 6-7).
This was the very purpose for which Jesus came, which we have just celebrated during Christmas. May our receiving of Him and what He offers to us enable us to see and experience more of Him in 2020!
These and other examples encourage us to know that seeing 20/20 spiritually will always enable us to see God and ourselves and others in a true light, and allow Him to use us as He desires. This was Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in 3:17-19: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
What Paul prayed for the Ephesians is also my prayer for you who are reading this. May the eyes of my heart and your heart be opened, so that we can see 20/20 in 2020!
Pastor Jon L. Pomeroy is pastor at Sandpoint Church of God. He can be reached at 221 S Division Ave., Ste. A, Sandpoint; or by phone at 208-263-6629.