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My son, daughter, and I all needed new glasses this year, so after searching for an optometrist with an opening we scheduled an appointment. The exams went well and we all ordered our new glasses. The cost was enough to make my wallet weep, though.
When the new frames arrived we all tried them on and enjoyed seeing clearly again. Like I always do I put the used ones in an old shoe box in my closet. Only this time the box was full to overflowing with years of used glasses in it. I felt bad about all of them just sitting there gathering dust. My daughter, however, soon found a company called ReSpectacle that accepts used glasses and then gives them to those who need but can’t afford new ones.
As we packed all the pairs to mail out my mind went back to a time when I was the one in need. I can still remember gluing my broken, plastic glasses’ frames for the twelfth time because we were struggling financially and there was no way I could afford new ones. I remember the tears in my eyes from the glue fumes and the tears in my heart from the pain of never having enough. I didn’t know why God was allowing us to struggle so much when my young family didn’t do anything wrong. It was one of those questions I asked God in prayer but never expected to get an answer to.
I think now I finally do know what that answer is. Perhaps God let me suffer then so I’d have more compassion for those suffering now. Perhaps God let me go without new glasses then so I would donate my old glasses now. Perhaps God let me feel what it was like to be in need so I’d give to those in need. The truth is we all go through pain, struggles, and suffering in this life. We can use them to grow selfish and bitter or we can use them to grow loving and kind. May you always choose kind. May you always choose love. May you always choose God.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.“ (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV)
Joseph J. Mazzella
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