Cleaning my Eyeglasses

“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” Matthew 5:8 [(he Message)

I have worn glasses since eighth grade. The first thing I discovered is the difficulty of keeping rain off the lenses. I’ve always joked that there should be windshield wipers for glasses, just like for automobiles. I’m sure there are some tiny novelty wipers out there, but I’d end up looking like a buffoon wearing them. I guess I’ll put up with rain-stained spectacles.

I never cleaned my glasses habitually anyway. Sometimes I wouldn’t do anything until someone else looked at me and said, “Wow, your glasses are dirty.” I figured if someone looking from the outside could see how spotted they were, it was time to clean them good.

Of course, once I decided to clean them, I usually didn’t have the appropriate cloth, and never had cleaning solution. I couldn’t figure out why people tried to stop me from reaching for a napkin in restaurants to clean them, until I took a good look at the tiny scratches that resulted. The same goes for paper towel as well. Fortunately, I turned away when I licked the lenses to get a little fluid on them. Oops, now I’ve written it and everyone knows what my lenses cleaning fluid consists of!

I still get frustrated. My shirts are terrible cleaning cloths. Whatever is on my lenses usually has enough grease that they have fewer spots, but are smudged over the entire surface. Before the attempted cleaning I could at least look around the individual spots. Now, everything is blurry and out of focus. Finally, I give in, take off my glasses, run them under warm water and use a bit of dish soap to clean them properly. Ah…good for another six to nine months!

It always surprises me how clear the world looks after a good cleaning. Maybe that sort of what Jesus is talking about, speaking about having pure hearts, or as The Message puts it, getting our inside world right.

Imagine my glasses so dirty that they actually distorted the world around me. People’s faces were indistinguishable from each other, one building looked the same as the next, and life was lived in a constant state of fogginess. The longer I went between cleanings, the more this view would appear to be “normal”. I would relate to world that was actually a dark vision of what was real.

We cannot “see” God clearly without hearts that are impure. The Greek word for “pure” is “katharos” and includes two ideas about purity. One is the thought of being free from mixture with something else. Therefore “pure” gold is gold and nothing but gold. The second is the sense of being clean. In this sense, “pure” gold might be 100% gold, but be dusty or caked with mud.

Both apply to our hearts. Too see God clearly, we must not allow our view of God to be influenced by things that would add or subtract from who God really is. So, as Jesus teaches us that Father God is holy, we would not view Him clearly if we saw Him as capricious, or uncaring about right living. Jesus tells us God is forgiving, so if our hearts departed from that singular view, mixing in fears that He is vindictive, we also will not see Him as He is.

We also miss a clear view of God when our own uncleanness obstructs the view. The harder we try to be clean, though, the more often we may actually smudge the lenses, just like my glasses. Jesus told His disciples that they were “clean” or “katharos” because of the Word which He had spoken to them. (John 15:3). Jesus is Truth, His words are Truth.

To experience God clearly, and in truth, we must find disciplines that allow us to get rid of opinions or emotions that get mixed up with the truth about God. Taking time to meditate on one truth aabout God’s character, as revealed by Jesus, helps us to experience Him as “forgiving” as opposed to “vindictive.” These “mixtures” can be the result of our upbringing, our particular emotional nature, or even past religious beliefs. The more we train ourselves to think on the truth about God, the more we will experience Him as He is.

Along with purifying our thoughts about God’s nature, we need also to purify our own personal “cleanliness”. After Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and Peter protested that he needed his whole body washed, Jesus said, “A person who has had a bath needs only wash his feet.” (John 13:10). Our “bath” is when Jesus cleanses us on the cross, once and all, from the guilt of our sinful life. That is once and for all.

But, we need daily cleansing, daily “foot washing”. We were completely cleansed upon admitting our sin, and receiving Jesus’ forgiveness, and our view of God was transformed. We need to daily admit our wrongdoings to God, freely admitting the wrong turns of thought, word or deed, and allow Jesus to cleanse us also each day. As we practice confession and receiving His forgiveness, we also “see God”. When we hide our sin from Him, we also hide ourselves, and we hardly sense Him at all. Or, at the worst, we foolishly think there is nothing for God to forgive.

What joy that we can be pure! “Blessed are the pure of heart” is an encouraging word to all who have been cleansed by the forgiveness of Jesus! “Seeing God” is the glorious benefit. Why not either let Him cleanse you, for the first time ever, if that is the situation in your case. Or, having followed Him, take Him today’s missteps and receive His beautiful purification.

As for me? I will allow Him to wash my feet daily…and, I will also clean my glasses more often.