Let me begin with a simple question-
How often do we take our eyes for granted?
Every morning that we wake up, even more so on Mondays, we know what will greet our eyes- the same old, the same old.
But what if one day, God forbid, you wake up and realize you can’t see?
Forget seeing, what if you can’t even push open your eyes? Your eyelids all glued up, accompanied by an itch you can’t scratch.
Can you perceive a sense of helplessness soaking in?
This is exactly what happened to me on Saturday afternoon (29th July, 2023).
How it began- The relentless itch
I was all set for a cozy weekend, having dusted and swept through the house. Once the weekend chores were done, I had a nice long bath, a hearty lunch and laid down for my evening siesta.
But for the last few hours, I could feel an ever-growing itch in my right eye. I splashed a lot of water, pressed my eyes with a compress and concluded that it might be because of strain.
I thought sleeping would help, only to find 2 hours later that my right eye wouldn’t open and seemed to be stuck with some gooey gunk.
A 1000 reasons why…
So, now that I lay with my eye glued shut and my mind racing at the speed of light, I started (over)thinking on the possible cause and effects.
My fearful heart refused to acknowledge it as the pink-eye. Why would I get the pink-eye? Sure enough there were rumors of many having fallen prey to the seasonal predator and yet, how could I get it?
With my left eye, I scourged through Google, reading up my symptoms and all pointed to bacterial conjunctivitis.
It’s fine, Sany, it’s normal to get a pink eye considering how contagious it is.
Yep, sure, it is.
But the thing with us spiritual folks is we spiritualize everything. Maybe I had offended someone, or was it my pride? Had I cast an evil eye, or become subject to one?
With a 1000 possible reasons racing through my mind, I heard that still small voice, saying
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
Taste and see that the Lord is good!
On Friday, out of nowhere, I started singing a worship song in my native language, Malayalam. The lyrics went like this:
“madhuram madhuram manoharam nal
thenilum madhuram thiruvachanam“
(English transcript: How sweet, how beautiful…sweeter than honey is Your Word!)
Now this was weird cause I don’t do that often. Malayalam (and am ashamed to confess it) never comes to me naturally, except when I am pissed off or need to convey something to my kin in public.
So, why on earth was I singing that hymn?
Well, I knew why on Saturday.
For God is good, all the time!
Visuals can be deceptive, even more so in the media-rich culture that we live in, where every blemish is erasable and every picture perfect.
In my previous blog I talked about the power of choice. How when we choose God-things over good things we lead a life of true worship.
But perhaps the most important choice a believer has to make, every day, is to choose to see the goodness of God.
In my sickness and my sorrows, in my joy and tomorrows, God, my Father is always good!
Which is why we must “taste” and see that Lord is good.
What’s with the “taste”, Sany?
Our taste buds have memories. Researchers call it the “conditioned taste aversions” wherein we are likely to refrain from consuming a particular food post prior poor experience with the same.
So, if we can indeed remember unpleasant tastes, shouldn’t it be the same for delicious ones?
When the psalmist asks us to “taste and see” the goodness of God- he is asking us to recall a similar experience and see the new situation in light of that experience!
Wohoo!
What a mind-blowing revelation.
It means, even if you are going through the worst possible time of your life (according to you), you have a better benchmark to compare it against- that is, the goodness of God!
If He was faithful once, He will be again and again- for there is no changing with God. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
And that is some hope, indeed the greatest one, to live by every day- no matter how terrible things may seem!
So, the question isn’t what you see, but how you choose to “taste and experience that the Lord is good”.
May you see your aversions/ bad experiences in light of His constant goodness, today!
P.S. My Pink Eye Progress Report!
Today was Day-3 of my pinky eye situation and am grateful that I could at least look around with relative ease, after 2 days of constant tearing, smelly gunk and partial blindness.
What’s more, I got to spend some real quality time with my silver lining (read the previous post for details).
So, at the end of it all, I am grateful indeed!
Grateful for another beautiful day:)
