How you see is what you get. Life and death, light and darkness--you choose the outcome when you choose whom to follow. Let the ranger with the big flashlight lead you, and you'll get back to camp safely. Ignore the ranger with the big flashlight, and you'll become disoriented, lost, and eaten by a bear.

The choice is yours. Whichever route, it's your eyes that inform your body how to proceed; they communicate to your heart and soul which way to go.

Of course, no one who ignores the light thinks they'll end up as bear food. Their path is better, they believe, or at least easier. Regardless, they're unable to discern in the darkness that it leads straight into the bear cave. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12 NIV). In effect, He told His listeners what if they wanted to make it out of the woods alive, they'd do well to follow the one with the flashlight.

The Pharisees were incensed by His claims. They asserted their unmatched knowledge of the woods and wanted to know who made Him ranger. They questioned Jesus about it while a crowd was listening, and based on His answers, many in the crowd believed Jesus was indeed the Light of the World. And because they made the choice to follow Him, they had the light.

That's how it works--in that order. When you choose to follow Him, you have the light because he is the Light. He's the one who gives you the ability to see the path and perceive your surroundings as they really are. There is no do-it-yourself home remedy for healthy eyes and right perception. Jesus is the only one who can make you see.

Once your eyes are healthy, everything is healthy because what you perceive affects your entire being. "If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light," Jesus said in Matthew 6:22 (NIV). Likewise a doctor shines a bright light into an unconscious patient's eye to check for brain death. If the eye responds to the light and the pupil constricts, the patient's brain is okay. If it doesn't, it's dead.

But unlike the person with brain death, it's never too late to make the decision to follow the light. We can choose to respond to the one who chose us first. He is the Light. He knows the way and will lead us safely back to camp.



PRAYER FOCUS

Thank God for making your eyes healthy, but ask Him to help you never take that for granted and to always "see clearly".

MOVING FORWARD

• Describe when you first realized you could see and perceive clearly.
• How have your healthy eyes affected your whole body? In other words, how has your healthy perception of Christ affected your life in general?
• In what circumstances have you rejected the "ranger's flashlight," and what can you do to ensure that happens less frequently?