20/15 Vision

Ever heard of 20/15 Vision? It is one step above 20/20 vision, it means what you should be able to see only at 15 you can see at 20/20. As a young child I took create pride in always being able to achieve 20/15 on my eye exam.

Lets go to another person with excellent vision. Mary. Mary was the mother of Jesus. Mary was not married and impregnated by the holy spirit. This puts Mary in a difficult situation. Good Jewish women did not have sex before they were married, to not be a virgin and not be married would at the least make you a reject and the scum of the earth in Jewish society, at worst it would have got you executed. So Mary a godly woman is now walking around pregnant and un-married. She suffers the stares and the mumbling as she walks by, she suffers being ostracized from her friends, she suffers the doubt and mistrust from her parents. She is treated as a sinner although she is a saint. Yet in Luke chapter 1 verse 49 she says "The Mighty One has done great things for me." So wait a minute you live your whole life godly trying to please the lord, and in doing his will you end up being the recipient of everyone's scorn and all he leaves you with is the "I got impregnated by the holy spirit" story and your saying the lord has done great things for you.

It gets better as Mary comes into term Rome decides to take a census, so she is forced to travel on a camel across the desert as a pregnant woman. My wife is pregnant and in term pregnancy she is not comfortable on our bed I can not imagine that Mary was comfortable on a Camel. If things could not become any worse she goes into labor while the only hotel for the night is booked. She is forced to give birth in a stable, not a warm bed, not a hospital bed, not in comfortable birthing center but in a stable. As I have been educated in birthing process I have seen how nasty birth can be, its bloody full of fluid and she is doing this in a stable. It stinks, its cold, there may be animal manure around on the floor is full of hay which is absorbing every bodily fluid that comes out of her, the hay sticks to her as she is trying to move about. It would be a bloody sticky mess. Then to make matters even better her newborn, whom she knows is the son of God is placed in a manager, a feeding trough for animals. I can tell you that as we become term my wife has cleaned, sanitized and decorated every environment that our child will touch, and Mary had to place her son in a manager. At the end of the night after Mary is visited by a few Shepherds the bible says that Mary "treasured up all these things."

I have to admit that at this point I might have been angry, I might have been bitter, I am carrying the son of God and this is the best that I can get a stinky stable and a manager, yet Mary treasured all these things. Why do you think that is? I think its because Mary had 20/15 vision. She could see farther from where she was then most. She realized that all these things were just minor inconveniences, they were war stories of an incredible adventure. She knew her destination was to be the mother of our savior. Ever taken a family vacation, I am talking about the ones taken in the car, you know the one's where its like 34 hours and you have four of you and all your luggage all stuffed in into a small sedan. Your knees ache, you are tired and groggy but you can't sleep, your going insane from boredom and you little sister is driving you crazy. Yeah that kind. They are miserable and tiring yet we do them again and again, why, because journeys are always difficult but destinations are always awesome. That's what Mary had in mind she realized that her journey was on the way to an awesome destination.

The bible says that with out vision people perish, that's because if you don't know where you're going than the focus is no longer the destination but the journey and journeys are miserable. If the journey is what your focus is than your life will be miserable and with out hope, will become angery and bitter and quit. You will make your destination what ever road side stop offers you some marginal comfort but you'll never be satisfied. Who wants to live their life at a gas station, lives are lived at destinations. With this in mind I encourage all of you to have a destination in mind. Prepare a vision statement for your life. I know for a fact that's what I am going to do. I am going to spend a greater part of the rest of this year creating some solid vision statements for my life, so that I have destination in mind, so that I can have 20/ 15 vision, so I can see farther the most and maybe just maybe I will be able to achieve more than most. Live the adventure.