Brothers and Sisters,
Apart from what you see and hear on Sundays, my two pastoral “weapons” of choice are a pot of coffee and the written word. The time will come for us to share the former. For now, I give you the first of many pastoral letters to come.
My vision isn’t what it used to be. They call it “latent hyperopia.” I call it tired eyes, blurry vision, and a headache. But as long as I wear my reading glasses, I get by alright.
I suspect many of you can relate. As the years come on, our eyes grow more and more dim. The font-sizes get larger and the prescriptions get stronger. We stash readers around our cars, homes, and offices—all to make sure we’re not caught blind. Such is life as we await the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:23).
Until that day when the “perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal body puts on immortality” (1 Cor 15:54), I find much encouragement in the fact that, although our physical vision may fail, there is a spiritual vision that grows stronger day by day.
This vision comes by way of the triune God who enlightens the eyes of our hearts to know Him and the glorious riches that He has lavished upon us in Christ (Eph 1:15-22).
As I shared with you on Sunday, Jesus is the Light of the World. If we are in Him, then by the illuminating power of the Spirit, the Father has shined in all our hearts to give us “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
So, take heart. Our physical eyes will fail us—if not today, then someday soon. But, in Christ, you and I have a set of eyes that grow stronger each day as the Spirit progressively corrects (the theological word is “sanctifies”) our spiritual vision so that we can truly see.
My prayer is that the Spirit would use the “spectacles” of Scripture to help us all see our world through Christ’s eyes this week.* May our sanctified vision help us to know and make known the One who is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.”**
In Christ Alone, Kenny
P.S. Be on the lookout for another email from me tomorrow titled, “Things Worth Noticing.” That’ll be my weekly roundup of interesting reads, views, and listens—all with a touch of pastoral and theological commentary.
*In case you’re wondering where you’ve heard “spectacles of Scripture” before, it comes from something John Calvin wrote about how the Bible helps us to see what we should’ve seen all along, if not for our sin. Here’s the quote in full: “For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any books however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly. God therefore bestows a gift of singular value, when, for the instruction of the Church, he employs not dumb teachers merely, but opens his own sacred mouth; when he not only proclaims that some God must be worshipped, but at the same time declares that He is the God to whom worship is due; when he not only teaches his elect to have respect to God, but manifests himself as the God to whom this respect should be paid.” John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1.vi.1.
** The Nicene Creed
