It Once Was Lost But Now is Found, I Once Was Blind But Now I See

During our beach vacay, I made the mistake of losing track of the ocean while in the ocean.  We have tried to teach our kids to have a healthy fear of the ocean and I did not remember the lesson for myself.  Amy was back at the beach house with Asher so I was deep in the water with Aaron and Jada, enjoying a rare moment of responsibility-free enjoyment.

But my relaxation turned to panic as I was hit with a huge wave that knocked my glasses off my face.  I yelled to Aaron and Jada to help me look for them but it was an impossible task, what with the water churning everywhere and me not being able to see.  After five minutes of tottering around in the water in a dazed state, I gave up, registered my loss with the lifeguard, asked in vain if such items were often retrieved ("um, no sir, usually not" was the reply), and then retired to our base camp to contemplate what to do.

I am pretty blind without my glasses so this situation would need to get rectified immediately.  I used my phone to locate a nearby optometrist and had them on the phone to connect them to my optometrist to convey my prescription when the lifeguard approached me with...my glasses!  Apparently, they had washed ashore near the feet of a beachgoer, who had dutifully turned them into the lifeguard station.  When I went to thank this good Samaritan and his wife said, "You should play the lottery today."

But I believe it wasn't luck.  While I was panicking, I was praying.  And these were desperate, crying out my soul prayers.  And God answered them.  And when He did, I felt a flood of gratitude that made my knees weak.  This answer to prayer literally gave me sight again. For I am utterly helpless without my glasses.  And, for a very brief sliver of time, they were taken from me, only to be miraculously given back.

I do not often feel utterly helpless.  Even in this disastrous situation, I had the material resources to set into motion a back-up plan, to order, purchase, and pick up a new pair of glasses, and the social resources to get help in getting driven to the optometrist and in tending to the kids while I was doing so.  I realize I have it well off in this world, and that for others such an incident would truly be disastrous.  I don't take for granted that I am largely buffered from ever having to panic that all is really lost or that I am really blind.

Nevertheless, it was a good lesson in the power and necessity of prayer.  Yes, we must take responsibility for our actions and our plans.  I should've been more careful going into the ocean wearing my glasses.  Just like it is on me to be a good husband and father, a good employer and a good citizen.  But the things that really matter, that I really want, I cannot do on my own, in my own strength, even with my best strategizing and greatest exertion.  It is the utter helplessness of the acrobat who has let go of one set of hands and cannot see the next set waiting to catch her.  It is prayer, and it works...always.




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