A Puppy with Glasses

There is a deacon’s family, who served in the same church for a time, and now visits often as a neighbor. Since I have three kids, I raise them in a “pasture” style but this couple raises their only daughter with so much gentle care. This precious daughter graduated from a top-notch college in the east coast, came back and began her career. It is said that the father and the daughter had made a promise before they immigrated to the States. The promise was that they would have a dog if they purchased a house, so the dad bought a dog even though he didn’t even like dogs. The puppy he got from ….was a Siberian Husky which was cheerful and mischievous. Hearing about a pretty puppy, called Oscar, my kids all ran to his house to see him. Though he was a typical Siberian Husky, the way that his hair of different colors circled around his eyes and looked like glasses seemed so interesting and odd.

Looking at the dog, I remembered the times I wished my glasses would stick to my eyes.

Even though my eyesight is not that bad, I still feel uncomfortable without my eyeglasses, and if I wear them all the time, I cannot read the words at a close distance. Since I do not need them during the daytime, I wear and take them off frequently and leave them everywhere. That’s why I wished I had had my glasses stuck onto my face forever. I had been living without glasses at the time, since I couldn’t remember where I had last put them.

Once, I even worried about my worsening forgetfulness since I lost my glasses so often. I even used a string to wear the glasses around my neck. The result was that the glasses were even more bothersome, and I looked like an old man so I got rid of it the next day. Nowadays, I just put them in the same place before I go to bed so that I will save myself time the next morning from having to find them, but it doesn’t last. I just get by without ruling out the possibility of having Lasik surgery.

A few days ago, there was an incident which awakened me to the fact that I could live without glasses somehow. When I got out of the church, after the early morning prayer meeting, it was still dark since it was before the sunrise and my eyes felt tired because I had gone to bed late and was still tired. As soon as I drove onto the main road after coming out of the parking lot, I realized that I did not have my glasses. It dawned on me that I had used it to read the Bible, and put them aside at the prayer meeting. I made a quick turn, and went back to the place where I had been sitting in the church and groped around until I found them there. If I had gone to bed early the day before, or if it hadn’t have been so dark, I would have gone to the destination without feeling the need of glasses and thus losing my glasses again.

As I write this article, I can’t remember where I put my glasses. My wife suggested to me that I wear bi-focal glasses instead. Then I can use them all the time without any problem when I drive or read a book. Then she added, “If your eyes were bad you’d wear them always, but since it’s so so, you always put them on, take them off, and end up losing them.”

This incident, along with Oscar’s interesting face, seems to have given me an opportunity to examine the relationship between my Creator and me. When he first created me, my whole being must have been clean just as my eyes were very clear. As time went by, I watched TV frequently and lived with computers close by all the time to make a living and thus my eyesight became poor. In proportion to it, my spirit began to deteriorate gradually as it became contaminated by sins. Nevertheless, since I try to live according to the teachings of the Bible, I’m not a completely bad apple but maintain some kind of pretense of being holy. To make this ruined life complete, the Creator gave his only son Jesus as an example and guides me to the right path through the record of his accounts and teachings. Just as the glasses supplement poor eyesight, my sinful life is led to the right way through the teachings of the Bible.

If my eyesight is really bad, to the degree that I can’t drive during the daytime without my glasses on, I would wear them always but since it is not that bad, I take them off frequently and live without them for days when I don’t remember where I put them. Sometimes, I just live for months without glasses. Likewise, when my life is in deep trouble or I’m ruined to hit the bottom, I would rather make an effort to live according to the life of Jesus in the Bible. On the other hand, when there is a problem but it is easily solved, and thus, I become arrogant that I can manage everyday life all by myself, I feel no burden in living without reading the Bible for months and without knowing where it is in the house. Since I live like this, I manage to get by living as a person who does not really care about Jesus or about learning through the Bible.

When you’re wishy-washy like this, and keep repeating such a way of life, the only way to overcome it is through trial as we Christians often talk about. You come to your senses, read the Bible, and plead to the Creator through Jesus when you are put in a worse situation or face hardships that seem to have no way out, etc.

I remember the funny face of Oscar with glasses that looked imposing as Siberian husky though he is still puppy. I’m reminded of myself who had to look at himself closely frowning because I didn’t wear glasses at the time, and how I wished I’d have glasses stuck into my eyes like cosmetic tattoos. I hope that my life would be the one where I am not arrogant, but live according to the Bible, relying on Jesus, and I wish that I do not take it off or forget Him but carry it forever with me for the rest of my life.