Of Eyes, Mountains, and Bear Hunts

As I write this, it’s a few hours before my sweet Ezra is scheduled to have surgery on both of his eyes.

As a child, I remember road-tripping with my parents to my grandparents home, and the tall hill that loomed ahead on the road. We’d approach a hill and I would think that when we tried to drive up it, the road in front of our car would be so steep. And then, we’d be driving up the hill, and the incline in front of us wasn’t so intense anymore.

Isn’t this just like the life of faith? I remember when the ophthalmologist first looked at my and my seven month old baby and spoke the word surgery. My cheeks turned red--I guess from fear? I don’t know that my cheeks had ever done that before. But in the face of unexpected news, the mountains looked steep.

Have you ever heard the children's song, “We’re going on a bear hunt?” Do you remember the part where the children encounter various obstacles?

A friend dropped off this CD for Ezra to listen to as his eyes blur and redden and hurt. And the lines spoke to my mommy heart on this eve of surgery:

“We can’t go under it. We’re can’t go over it. We can’t go around it. We’ve got to go through it.”

Indeed, the mountains loom steep, but only when we look with temporal eyes. When we look with eyes of faith, we see just enough of the incline to take the next step. And praise God that we walk through trials with a faithful High Priest who promises to never leave or forsake us, and who can sympathize with our weakness.

Now we are on the verge of surgery, and my mommy heart aches with the thought of the temporary suffering my little man will have to undergo for long term good. But you know what? Today, we are climbing the mountain that I dreaded. And the incline is not so steep as I would have imagined.