Thoughts Inspired by Sunday's Sermon

I scribbled the following post on a piece of paper during this past quiet Sunday afternoon, intending to share these thoughts with you, my dear sisters in Christ. I meant to post this Monday, but things have been busy, so here I am at last. :)

Do you know what causes cataracts?

According to my understanding, it's the sun that makes all the trouble. Over the course of daily living, the sun's rays cause cataracts to build up on our precious lenses, through which we see the world. I've been told that wearing sunglasses with UV protection can slow this process, since it's the UV rays in the sunlight that are harmful. Folks show spend a great deal of time out in direct sunlight, without proper protection, are at a much higher risk of developing cataracts, I would think.

What a horrible thing it would be to be told you are going blind. I shiver at the thought. God knows how dear I hold my sight - such a precious gift from Him it is.

But the sun is not a very big star, in the whole spectrum of things. Many other stars would outshine our sun if they were side by side. It is easy to forget that those tiny sparkling gems that are hidden during the day are, many of them, far brighter than the sun which cloaks them. Yet the sun, with its very closeness, can - and would - blind each one of us if we looked at it long enough. The brightness which fascinates us would be our destruction, plunging us into darkness.

I wonder how many of us are developing spiritual cataracts. We know this world is not our home, and we know eternity awaits us, yet this world distracts us, with all its brightness and glamor. We know it doesn't compare to what will be, but because this world is so close, so here, we stare at it. We embrace it. We love it. Those closeness of it outshines what we've been told about our distant home, and it almost seems as if there is nothing but here and now. Why not live for the moment?

We do all this hardly realizing that we seal our own doom. We can never see the stars, so long as we stare at the sun and, if we stare long enough, we shall not see the stars even when we look away. We shall see nothing. Not even the brightness and glamor that first drew our eyes off eternity.

But I doubt many of us are in that state. I would think that most of us are blissfully unaware of the UV rays that stream into are eyes every day. We haven't noticed that foggy brown haze around our peripheral vision, or the lack of sharp images when the night grows dark. It all happens so gradually.

UV. In science terms, it means ultra-violet light. But in a spiritual application, perhaps it could stand for "Useless Vanity," though calling vanity useless is rather redundant. It does serve to make a point, though, for that's what spiritual UV rays are; useless vanity. That are those things which serve no purpose beyond here and now. The obsession with things that satisfy the five senses and nothing else. The things that stimulate the old man, and call up nothing in the new except a sense of uneasiness.

Let's be gone with these rays. Let's put on our spiritual sunglasses and take our eyes off the world, though we can't help being in it. Let's busy ourselves with getting to know the Master, for we're going to spend eternity with Him.