Blinded by the light. Its difficult to see. Feeling unsafe behind the wheel. Hoping to be home and safe soon. I am vulnerable and I am challenged. The eye doctor dilates my eyes and every ray of sun causes a wince, bringing hand to eye for cover and protection. I am not seeing well. I am not seeing clearly. I want to go home. I know this is temporary. I am certain my vision will improve. I’ve been told it will take two hours. But in this time I am reminded of what it feels like to see unclearly, to see the world in a blur, missing detail. Things are askew. Things are murky, cloudy and off a beat a bit. There are so many times when I do not see the what’s right there. Someone has unspoken pain and I do not see the what’s behind the surface. Someone is struggling with a life circumstance and I do not see clearly the effect it has on words and actions. There is a hidden fact or emotion which I do not see, cannot see, or even will not see. Things are hidden away. Buried down deep. Out of sight. Out of plain view. Things that require sweet Mercy and Grace to see with tenderness and understanding. Like my dilated eyes preventing clarity, the blur of the eyes of the heart can slant and cripple,distort the ability to see with Kingdom Eyes. 
“You can’t go on ‘seeing through’ things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see”. — C.S. Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”. But when I put on the lense of Grace and my heart looks out through a lense of Mercy, I begin to see with understanding and love. The facts or circumstances causing the blurry are less important. The pieces of the puzzle missing matter less now. My eyes are more aligned with the heart of God. Mercifully I see. The blur of pain causing a skewed understanding fades when I look in love. His love. Handicapped on my own. Unable to see clearly without Him. Needing the corrective lense on life of the spirit of God, needing a shift in my fleshy perspective, needing a glimpse of His people through the eyes of Jesus.
“The litmus test of our love for God is our love of neighbor.” — Brennan Manning.
I want to see clearly, lovingly, tenderly, mercifully. And I want to see past and through the circumstances- both my own and those of others. I want to see the hard to see places and yet see nothing, embracing and loving the hard and the unlovable. Loving in an all out way where all becomes invisible in love but that which matters. They are my family, my friends, my neighbors. I want to love Gracefully and Mercifully in the blur of life, the blur of pain, the blur of hurt, and the blur of circumstances.
Eyes of Mercy and Eyes of Grace shift perspective, shift view, and opinion and judgement. A lense of Grace and a lense of Love allow compassion and tenderness to focus the eyes of the heart lovingly, kindly, and oh so sweetly to see Beauty each and every time. To see the shadow of the Cross and the bright clear love reigning down from Heaven.
My vision is still off. I feel the sting of the blurr of my vision being manipulated by the doctor. And I know how fragile the eyes are, especially the eyes of my heart. I know how quickly I am prone to look out not in love, but in judgement, in criticism, in hyper-sensitivity and without empathy.
So I lean hard on Him as a blind woman leans on a cane. Crippled am I, handicapped am I without any strength on my own. With the vision of a sinner, blind to others, stumbling into others, running hard into pain and causing it myself, I need the Shephard’s staff.
Mercifully He offers. Mercifully He leads.
Amazing Grace. A view of life like no other, through the lense of Grace.
elizabeth w. marshall 