Of Windows, Idols, and Cataracts

By: Jonathan Baird

C.S. Lewis wrote often of being awakened to the world around us. In Surprised By Joy he spoke of his “...determination to rub one’s nose in the very quiddity of each thing, to rejoice in its being so magnificently what it was.” Something so thin as a piece of paper, or as big as skyscraper holds together and does not fall apart. The air around us sustains us with life as we breath it in, yet we can see through it. The ground beneath us is firm enough for us to walk on without slipping through. These may seem like childish observations about reality, and of course they are. As Christians, sometimes we need to be awakened from our slumber of ignoring the amazing world around us that screams the glory of God.

Often we are prone to view the created world as full of idols, which it is. We see the iPhone, or the filet mignon as a possible mini-god that may steal our affections that should rightly be aimed at the God of the universe. This is a legitimate concern, but one that poses another risk. We are reluctant to receive God's good gifts and enjoy them as they are. Instead of viewing the gift as coming from the hand of a good and benevolent God we view it is a cataract that blurs our view of our Father.

The glutton does not enjoy his food, he is a slave to it. The serial adulterer does not enjoy intimacy, he is just a minion of the god of Eros. One thing that makes the good news of the gospel really "good" is that we are no longer slaves to the god of Mammon. No longer are we doomed to serve the stuff that we have, and instead we "super-conquer" the material world as it becomes our slave to heighten our joy in God. Instead of viewing God's good gifts as distractions or evil we should see them as windows into the Good Heart of God. The more we view God's world as good, and real, and as a means to find our ultimate joy in Him, idolatry will not be a problem. Neither reject your good gifts as idols, nor view them as a bothersome cataract that blurs your vision of God, but rather embrace them as a window to deeper intimacy and understanding with God.