Jerad’s Lazy Eye

“Why does Tim wear a patch on his eye?” Jerad asked Mom. Tim’s family had come to eat supper with Jerad’s family, and the two boys had become friends. But the black patch had puzzled Jerad all evening. “He said he has to wear it ’cause he has a lazy eye. What does that mean?”

Mom turned off the light as Jerad got into bed. “A lazy eye means that one eye doesn’t focus, or look at things, together with the other eye,” she explained. “That makes it hard to see things clearly. If he wears a patch on the good eye, then the other eye has to learn to focus.”

“Is that why he lifted up the patch when he looked at a book with me?” Jerad wondered. “It seemed like he went cross-eyed a little bit.”

“Probably so,” Mom agreed. “His lazy eye still doesn’t focus well, so he uses his good eye when he wants to see something clearly. Most of the time everything probably looks a bit blurry to him.”

“I thought the patch looked kind of neat, but I don’t think it would be very fun to wear it,” Jerad decided. “I’m glad that I can see things clearly.”

“Yes, God made our eyes to be very helpful to us. That will be a good thing to be thankful for tonight, don’t you think?”

“Uh-huh,” Jerad agreed, shutting his eyes. Since he was seven, he always counted seven things to thank God for every night. The first six were always the same—“Thank you God for Dad, and Mom, and Joshua, and baby Justin, and food to eat, and a bed to sleep in.” Tonight he added, “and being able to see without a patch.”

It wasn’t long after Jerad fell asleep that he heard Mom calling him. “Coming!” Jerad said obediently, but when he hopped out of bed he couldn’t see where the door was. That’s funny—it is usually right here, he thought. Maybe my eyes aren’t working right. When he reached for the wall, it moved and he fell against something hard. “Ouch!” he cried, trying to get up. “Mom, where are you?” Her voice came from behind him, but when he turned to look he saw someone with two heads and three arms. Jerad was scared. “Mom! I need you!” Jerad cried, and suddenly he woke up. Jerad rubbed his eyes and looked around. There was his bedroom door with the hall light shining through. No one was there, except Joshua curled up asleep on the other end of the bed. It had all been a bad dream.

Jerad told Mom about his dream the next morning. “It was strange when I couldn’t find the door,” he said. “I thought my eyes were going to be bad like Tim’s and I was scared!”

Mom gave him a hug. “I’m glad you can see me alright now,” she said. “Maybe God let you have the dream so you can be extra thankful for two good eyes!”

Jerad was thankful for awhile. He was glad to see the pancakes at breakfast and baby Justin learning to crawl. But when Dad said they needed to stack the wood pile in the shed, Jerad wasn’t so happy. “Do we have to do the whole woodpile?” he asked, frowning out the window. “It will take a long time!”

“Willing hands makes the work light,” Dad said with a grin. “Let’s see how fast we can get it done!” Jerad followed him outside slowly, wishing he could be building his fort or playing with the new kittens instead.

Dad took the biggest logs and Jerad took the smaller ones. It took awhile to fill the back of the shed. Jerad looked at the pile and it didn’t seem much smaller, but Dad didn’t seem to care. He whistled a tune, and then stopped to encourage Jerad. “Keep it up, son!”

They were on the second side when Uncle Mike drove up with the cousins. Jerad stopped working to wave excitedly. While Uncle Mike stopped to talk about business, Dad gave Jerad permission to go play with the cousins in the barn.

“I’ve been building a fort,” Jerad told them, leading the way. “Do you want to see it?”

It wasn’t long before Jerad came to the house. Slowly he opened the back door.

“Did the cousins leave already?” Mom asked, when she saw that he was alone.

“No,” he said, taking off his shoes. “Can I have an apple? I’m hungry.”

“I can slice it up so you can all share it,” Mom decided.

“But there won’t be enough,” Jerad said with a frown.

“There is only one apple left, and I’m sure your cousins will want some, too,” Mom said.

“But I’m not going to show it to them,” Jerad said.

Mom looked at him in surprise.

“I’m staying inside, ’cause they aren’t playing nicely,” Jerad explained.

“What happened?”

“Rob laughed about my fort and said it was for little kids,” Jerad said, angrily.

“I’m sure they would like the new kittens,” Mom said.

“But it’s not fun at all—they just hold them and won’t share!”

“Were you sharing?” Mom asked quietly.

“Well, the white one is mine and I don’t like other people to hold it.”

“So you weren’t sharing? I’m sorry to hear that.”

Jerad began rubbing his eyes. “But they aren’t being nice! Now the white one ran away and they said I scared it, and I didn’t! They did!”

“Jerad, is something wrong with your eyes?” Mom asked. “You seem to be having trouble seeing things clearly. Maybe that’s why you are rubbing them.”

“No,” Jerad muttered, glaring out the window. “It’s because they aren’t being nice to me!”

“That reminds me of what Jesus told some people,” Mom said, smiling a little. “They didn’t think they had a problem with seeing, but he said that they were blind. It was their selfishness and pride that made them see things in the wrong way. Sort of like their eyes being out of focus.” She picked up her Bible and started looking through the pages.

Jerad stood still. He suddenly remembered Tim’s black eye patch and his bad dream. Mom must have thought about the same thing, because she showed him some verses all about good eyes and bad eyes. “Jesus said that if your eye is single, or focused, your whole body will be full of light. That means you will see things clearly, just like they really are. But it also means that God’s light and blessing will fill you up inside. When you have an evil eye, or an eye that is selfish and lazy, you will have trouble seeing anything good or right. Jesus said then your whole body will be full of darkness.”

Mom took Jerad’s hands and looked into his eyes. “Remember how glad you were to see clearly this morning?” she asked. Jerad nodded. “That’s what Jesus wants for your inside eyes, too. You see, our spirit has eyes, just like our head does. If our spirit doesn’t focus on what is good and right—maybe one part of us wants to be kind and thankful, but the other part is thinking of ourselves and getting lazy—then everything looks bad. The wood pile looks too big, the apple looks too small, and the cousins look unfriendly and selfish.” Mom smiled. “Sort of like when you thought you saw someone with two heads and three arms.” Jerad hung his head.

“Let’s ask the Lord to help you get your eyes focused,” Mom suggested. “Are you ready to be thankful for your cousins and share with them? Or maybe you will need an eye patch to help you out?”

Jerad shook his head. “I don’t want an eye patch!” He hesitated, then said, “I want to pray so that I can be thankful.”

Soon Jerad was heading out to the barn with a bag of sliced apples and two bright eyes.