Day 12: Ophthalmology
- Updated Mar 10, 2009
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine dealing with diseases and
surgery of the eye. I know a little bit about that, having had five
surgeries on my eyes over the course of a five year period. I am enough
of an expert to know this much. When you are looking for an
ophthalmologist, you want someone who knows what he is doing, who
doesn’t operate unless there is a real need, and who has a steady hand
because eye surgery is delicate business. Make a wrong move and the
results could be disastrous.
The most unusual fact about eye surgery, at least from my perspective, is that you are awake while it happens. Even though the eye is numbed, you lie there and watch the doctor as he does his operation. In that situation one thing you don’t want to hear the doctor say is “Oops!"
You certainly want a doctor with clear vision. If the doctor can’t see clearly, how can he be sure when he performs surgery on you? If the doctor has a plank in his own eye, how can he remove the speck in your eye? That’s what Jesus meant when he said, “How can you say to your brother, ’Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4).
Sometimes in our haste to help others, we can cause more damage than the original speck of dirt. To simply gaze on the sins of others turns us into judgmental Pharisees who are quick to condemn. But once we are cleansed and humbled by the Lord, then we are ready to remove the tiny speck from a brother’s eye. And he will be glad for us to do it because he knows we are not there to condemn but to help.
