Yesterday, Jeff had cataract surgery. For a while now, his vision had become cloudy, making reading especially difficult. The solution was to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a new one, clear and whole.

As I waited during his surgery and prayed, I reflected on how closely this mirrors our spiritual lives. Just like Jeff needed a new lens to see clearly, we need the right lens to read and understand Scripture. That lens is called our hermeneutic. “Hermeneutic” is a fancy seminary word for the framework or perspective through which we interpret the Word of God. Everyone reads Scripture through a lens. Mine is the lens of resurrection.

Resurrection doesn’t just mean life after death. It means that God brings new life out of what was broken, lost, or dead. When I read Scripture through this lens, I see a God who is always redeeming, always restoring, always bringing beauty from ashes. Even in passages of judgment or sorrow, I find myself looking for the thread of resurrection, because I believe that’s where the heart of the gospel lies.

But just like a physical lens can become cloudy, our spiritual lens can get obscured by fear, grief, cynicism, or even familiarity. If (or maybe I can even say when that happens) we stop seeing clearly. So, if that were to happen for me, I might forget the power of the resurrection and miss the promise of hope.

That’s why I’m continually asking God to keep my lens clean and sharp, to help me see His Word and our world through the bright light of resurrection. Because when I do, I find that even the darkest valleys are not the end of the story.

Jeff’s surgery yesterday reminded me that sometimes the most powerful transformations begin with vision, not just in the eyes, but in the soul.