Blurry Vision and Unseen Details

You know the feeling when something is in your eye. It’s scratchy. Your eye waters. You blink and rub and just want whatever it is out.

That was me the other day, doing a slow recovery walk after a fun race weekend. The fresh air was great — until my eye started to ache. I blinked. Rubbed my eyelid. Tried to shift my contact with my finger. No luck. It was irritated, and I was a mile from home.

I was determined to keep walking, I finally took the contact out. Instant relief. I inspected it, saw no speck or tear, and was about to put it back in when a gust of wind blew it from my fingers. I watched helplessly as it disappeared into the gravel below. Gone.

Now I was walking forward — but with blurry vision. One eye gave clarity. The other, distortion. Together? Hazy. Still, I kept moving.

A few minutes later, a doe and her fawn run across the road in front of me. With both eyes open, I saw a large deer and a small one. But when I closed my contactless eye, I noticed spots on the fawn’s back. Details that had been there all along — but that I hadn’t been able to see clearly.

It made me think of this verse: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

Here on earth, life is often blurry. We see just enough to keep moving forward, but not the full picture. Things don’t always make sense. We question the timing, the pain, the closed doors, the waiting. We see shapes, movement — but miss the details.

But one day, we’ll see clearly. The questions will be answered. The pain will make sense. The confusing parts will come into focus. The blurry view will be gone.

Until then, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). We trust that what we can’t yet see clearly, God already sees in perfect detail.

Challenge: This week, pay attention to the “blurry spots” in your life — the things that frustrate you, confuse you, or just don’t make sense. Instead of trying to figure them all out, pause and remind yourself: This isn’t the whole picture. Pray for trust to keep walking forward, even when things are unclear. God sees the full story, and in time, so will we.