An Annoying Floater

I was standing in my kitchen with my laptop in front of me, writing as I do each day.
Something like an eyelash seemed to get in the way of the computer screen.
I rubbed my eyes, but it would not go away.
When I read the last line I wrote, the “eyelash” moved with my eyes.

I looked at the ceiling.
I looked at a white paper towel.
The squiggly “eyelash” moved about everywhere I looked.
I remembered the questions at my last eye exam a year ago.

Do you ever see flashes of light? No.
Do you ever get floaters in your eye? No.
Floater.
That name kept popping up in my memory.

I did what anyone else would do.
I googled it.

Eye floaters are small moving spots that appear in your field of vision. They may be especially noticeable when you look at something bright, such as white paper or a blue sky. Eye floaters can be annoying, but they generally don’t interfere with your sight. (webmd.com)

Further research told me more about this annoying squiggly line in my left eye.
Apparently there is a clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina.
Called the vitreous humour, the gel is usually transparent.
However, as we age, imperfections and degenerative changes develop in that gel.

I called the eye doctor just in case.
I was scheduled to have my annual eye exam a few days after this floater appeared.
After answering some questions over the phone, I knew that I could wait until then.
It was not affecting my vision; it was just terribly annoying.

The weekend between the appearance of the floater and the eye exam, I had lunch with friends.
Not just any friends but high school friends.
Friends that when we get together, we pick up right where we left off .
We never miss a beat.

One of my friends wears glasses like me.
I asked her quietly as we sat at the table if she ever experienced a floater in her eye.
All the time, was her quick reply.
You just learn to live with them after a while, she explained.

The others heard our conversation and chimed in.
We are all the same age.
Most of us have experienced the annoying floater at one time or another.
One of my friends made me laugh.

Oh, I went to the eye doctor, she mentioned.
I was told that it’s just a part of getting old! She said, not thrilled with his bedside manner.
We laughed about all of the changes we go through as we age.
However, the general consensus was we are not old by any means, we are just wise.

My annoying floater is still swimming around in my eye.
I can blink it away.
A part of getting old, they say.
Like my friends and I concluded: Not older but wiser!

I went to the eye doctor for my exam.
It was indeed a floater.
I got to see the extraordinary picture of my retina.
It was truly a marvel to behold.

I struggle with how anyone can deny the existence of God after seeing that picture.
There it was, my annoying floater, right in the center of the picture.
I pointed to it amazed.
It was the exact shape I see with my left eye.

The doctor, who is a three years younger than me, tried very hard to use the correct words.
This just shows you are getting wiser!
I actually laughed and had to explain why I was laughing.
In his attempt to not offend me, he used the same word my friends and I said at lunch.

No, they cannot be removed.
No, there is nothing to do about them.
I will get used to them, he said, and not even see them after a while.
It will take my brain one month for neural adaptation, he explained.

My brain will learn to disregard this annoying floater.
He likened it to hearing every sound as you try to sleep in the busy city.
After a while, the sounds are still there, but you have gotten used to them.
You don’t hear them any longer.

Then he pointed to my annoying floater and told me that it looked like a cat.
See there is the head, and that is the tail; it looks like a cat lying on a bed.
Being a Psychology major in college, I teased him about taking the Rorschach test.
We both laughed at the inevitability of the passing of time.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. (Genesis 2:15-17)

Even though our bodies are amazing and expertly created by God, they are deteriorating.
That deterioration is an effect of sin.
The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
This world is a fallen world and things fall apart, including us.

However, this fallen world is not all there is.
It is not even a little bit of all there is.
There is eternity.
That eternity is either spent with God or without Him.

Jesus, the Son of God, is known as the last Adam. (1 Corinthians 15:45)
Jesus, fully God,  came to earth as a man who never sinned.
Jesus’s death and resurrection satisfied the wrath of a holy God.
Jesus, the last Adam accomplished what the first Adam could not.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)

If we believe and trust in Jesus alone for our salvation, we live forever with Him in heaven.
Even though our bodies are aging every day from the moment we are born, we do not lose heart.
It is just the way things are here in this fallen place.
However, in Christ, we are renewed every day.

The eternal effect of our sin was payed for on that cross.
We will still age but we do become wiser.
Wiser in the Lord, as we cling to Him and know Him as He is revealed in Scripture.
We are being renewed, we are being made new, despite our physical age.

Amen!
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for using an annoying floater to remind me of that truth.