It happened in southern India in the 1940s. A young village boy about twelve years old was helping Dr. Margaret Brand, the missionary eye doctor, as she did cataract surgery.

As it turned out, one of the patients was the boy’s own mother, who had gone blind before her son was born. She had never seen him. Dr. Brand writes, “By the tenth day [following the surgery] my young helper was bouncing up and down with excitement, saying, ‘Amma, can you see me now?’ ”

After the mother received her new glasses, it took several minutes for her to realize that she could see again. “She gazed at her son for a long time, and then, breaking into a smile, said, ‘My son, all these years I thought I knew you, but today I see you.’ “[1]

“So many times I think I know a person,” writes Dr. Brand:

I make up my mind about them, and my opinion is not always favorable. Then God has to stop me and say, “Now just a minute. Let me show you how I see that person.”[2]

We’re all a bit blind when it comes to judging people. Like the mother, who for twelve years could judge what her son looked like only by touching him, we judge people by our experience when we bump up against their rough exterior. For example, your husband may have been critical of you this morning, and you assumed he was displeased with something you had done. But if you could have seen inside, you might have found that he was really worried about his job.

The Psalmist once prayed, “O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes” (Psalm 13:3). We need God’s help to see people as they really are.

Say, that person who rubs you the wrong way—ask God to do divine eye surgery today so you can see him as God sees him.

[1] Vision for God by Dr. Margaret E. Brand with Dr. James L. Jost (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 2006), 122

[2] Ibid.