I like to play with words; hence the title since I will be discussing eyeglasses. They run in both sides of my family. Better yet, the need for them does.
“Have you noticed something about Maverick’s eyes?” My mom asked. We had all begun to notice that one of his eyes moved on its own. Then his other eye began to do the same, so my daughter Sara took him to an eye doctor. By the way, she went to kindergarten with Dr. Seth. He was a sweet child then and he is a sweet man now. I couldn’t help but wonder how Dr. Seth was going to give this feisty baby boy an eye exam. After all, I have had those exams since I was a little girl.
When I was six years old, I started going to an ophthalmologist. He did the usual routine on me by dilating my eyes and having me read letters and numbers off of a chart in the distance. I even had to put on specials glasses while I looked over a drawing of a big fly. Then he instructed me to try to grab at the wings that stood out to me. To this day, I don’t know whyvthey couldn’t have used a butterfly instead. I mean, who wants to grab a nasty fly?
Even though Dr. Seth couldn’t perform those specific tests, he was still able to exam Maverick’s eyes. To be honest, I was rather impressed as I watched Dr. Seth work with him. After he finished, he gave a diagnosis. I don’t remember the technical name, but in essence, Maverick’s brain hemispheres weren’t talking to each other as they should have been doing. Actually, this can happen when a baby is born premature as Maverick had been. Then Dr. Seth said he maygrow out of it. If not, at the next appointment he would order glasses for him.
That really peeked my interest. How can you determine the right prescriptive lens for a baby? Have you ever had to go through that process? I have countless times. My doctor would place a cold piece of equipment over the top part of my face. It resembled a mask like you would wear with a costume. When I was a kid, I loved it because it looked like something a robot would wear. Then I would peer into various lens to determine which one I could see the clearer with as my doctor asked: “Can you see better with this one? How about this one? Or is this one better or worse?” I knew Maverick couldn’t responded as needed. To my surprise, the doctor ordered prism lens. They work by pulling Mavericks eyes toward the middle of the lens so they can focus together. This is supposed to help his brain hemispheres to better communicate with each other. Not long after Maverick began to wear them, his development moved forward in leaps and bounds.
“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Proverbs 4:25 (KJV)
Just as Maverick’s prism lens help to keep his focus forward, we need to keep our eyes focused forward on The Lord. I don’t know about you, but when I look away at the temptations and distractions of the world, I lose sight of the blessings and adventures of what His path has in store for me. No earthly distractions are worth that.
The first picture is obviously of Maverick in his new red glasses. The second picture is my eighth-grade picture. Thanks to the “Wonder Woman” series with Linda Carter, large lens was the style at that time. In fact, mine were so huge that I had my initials in the bottom corner and I didn’t even notice them when I read.

Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.