Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see.

Have you ever wandered the world blind to what is in front of you? Caught in your own problems, wrapped tightly in demands and responsibilities thrust upon you, you stumble forward as if enveloped in a heavy fog. You strain your eyes, but they are of no use, you cannot see.

At that point, your mind compensates for your loss of vision with many other brilliant capabilities. Your four remaining senses are heightened. (…what’s that noise?...did the ground move beneath me?...smoke, I think I smell smoke…she added too much salt to my soup…etc.) You create pictures of places and events internally. You brighten or darken the colors of your world as if on a manual control bar. You avoid physical movements of your head and look straight forward.

But you are not blind.

This revelation occurs unexpectedly when you are going about your daily tasks, oblivious to visual stimuli. Something sparkles for a millisecond. It stops you in your tracks. Wait – what was that? Immediately, you’re haunted by this ghostly apparition. You scan your surroundings to find it again.

Was it a familiar face? Was it the deep blue in someone’s eyes? Was it a word on a page that filled your heart with fire? Was it the splash of color in an otherwise monochrome scene? Was it the sun playing among the ripples of a pond? Was it a person you know well that smiled suddenly?

The truth as it becomes clearer lifts the fog.

What have you missed? What is right in front of you, as near to you as the lines on your own hand, that you haven’t seen? …your neighbor’s wave, the keys turning yellow on an old piano, tiny chips etched on your windshield, twinkling stars, a missing puzzle piece, crumbs on the countertop…

You can see. YOU CAN SEE! The world is filled with incredible detail. You zoom in again and again, not content to wander blindly, recording pictures in your mind of the beauty around you. Drinking of that fountain, your thirst is never quenched. You have received a gift, and you are never the same person again.

Amazing grace.