I recently got a “free spiritual reading.” You may have seen these at a fair, or a trade show, or some other major event. I had never been sure what exactly a spiritual reading was, but I assumed it was a bit like having your fortune told. Someone would look into my eyes, perhaps look at my hands, ask me some basic questions, and then tell me that in the future I will find a tall, dark, handsome man, I’ll go on vacation in Venice, and that much happiness is in store for me. Then every time I’d meet a tall, dark handsome man, I’d assume he was my soul mate, I’d dream of Venice every night, and the power of positive thinking would bring the happiness she was talking about.
Yeah… that is not at all what a spiritual reading is.
My friend and I sat down at a little table, so short our knees kept hitting it, and a kindly older lady sat across from us, much like the ones you might see at church (who every week pinch your cheeks and tell you how much you’ve grown). She began by asking if we had accepted Jesus as our personal saviour. Not quite what we expected but OK... After a bit of a spiel about how Jesus died for us, followed by a hugely awkward repeat after my prayer thanking Jesus, she began. However, rather than explaining to us how our futures looked, she instead told us about the state of our relationship with God. She told my friend that God “just wants to be friends” with her, and clarified to me that God feels like I’m drifting away from him.
After she told us this, we were getting ready to leave. Anxious to get away, we started into a conversation about how I had lost my glasses just previously that day. She asked if we would like to pray about it. Being that I am ridiculously blind without my glasses, by this point anything that may have helped me to find them was welcome. So, expecting a quick prayer asking God to help me find my glasses, or something along those lines, I closed my eyes. “Heavenly Father,” she said, “Please give Kathleen new eyes.” That’s right, new eyes. Not help her find her glasses, not help her get new glasses, not even help her eyes get better, but rather, give her brand-spanking-new eyes. She goes on, mentioning how yes, God can do that because hey, he is God.
I’m not going to lie. At first I thought that she was totally nuts. New eyes? Really, let’s make Kathleen the first person ever to randomly receive new eyes. Can you imagine the practicalities behind getting new eyes- what would happen to my old ones? What colour would they be? Would these new eyes actually be able to see any better, or would my eyesight be even worse? Not to mention the idea that rather than solving world hunger or stopping wars, or fighting criminals, God’s going to spend time in giving me eyes. Right.
However, after the original hilarity of the situation passed, after I had found my way home, and was reflecting back on the day, I realized something. This woman had actually believed that God could give me new eyes. Her faith was so strong that she believed God would reach out and give me those new eyes. She wasn’t caught up in the practicalities, but truly believed that God would just deal with my problem, and that if he so wanted, he could give me those new eyes. Her faith was unwavering, and she really believed that this could happen. Though I’m sure she has come across people who were perhaps less discrete than us in the differences of belief, she was ready to just out and say it- that she believed God could give me knew eyes, and still solve world hunger.
So maybe God did give me new eyes that day. I mean, I still can’t read a sign that is more than a foot in front of my face without my glasses on, but maybe he changed the way I see people. Because whereas previously I would have passed this well meaning, perfectly nice lady off as nuts, off-her-rocker, and maybe just a little bit crazy, now I don’t. I see her as a person who has such a strong faith that she truly believes God can and will do anything, if we just ask. While I still don’t necessarily believe the same things about God as she does, and while I’m sure she meant to give me new eyes in a more physical sense, my sight did change. I’ve become more open to different beliefs, and the strength that people have to proclaim them all in front of others. It has perhaps made me a bit more willing to share my views, despite them being different than the person’s who I’m sharing them with. My new figurative eyes see the world in a different way.
Mind you, I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to new eyes with 20/20 vision, in a nice shade of green.
-Kathleen Kerr
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