True Confession: I Hated the School Nurse

by Curtis Shelburne

AS I RECALL, it was only one year after the year I fell in love with my second grade teacher that I fell into hate with our school nurse.

“If only the old bandaid pusher had minded her own business . . . .” I muttered something to that effect with all the indignation a myopic eight-year-old could muster. In fact, our school nurse was a savvy lady who minded her own business quite well. Her business was to give eye exams to third-graders like me. I should have thanked her, but I was in no mood.

“Why doesn’t she go pick on somebody else?”

Unfortunately, I was pretty sure I could already see “the hand writing on the wall” (actually, I couldn’t; I couldn’t see the big “E” on the eyechart on the wall, either). This meddlesome woman would be calling my parents to report that their young son was as blind as the proverbial bat, and that would be the beginning of all manner of trouble. She did, and it was.

Before many moons, I became the unhappy owner of a brand new pair of glasses and an enormous load of self-consciousness. I was about to become, I was sure, the first bespectacled spectacle ever to walk down the halls of San Jacinto School. Not a disobedient child normally, I felt forced to take drastic action. I would not wear those things! I’d resist for all I was worth! Oh, I’d wear them to school, but then I’d lose them until time to go home.

There was, however, a fatal flaw in the plan. The hated spectacles had to be put on at least briefly, and I discovered to my amazement that the world surely looked good in focus! I hadn’t realized what I’d been missing!

I remembered all of this years later when I came across the title of a book by Edith Schaeffer, A Way of Seeing. I haven’t read the book, but I like the title.

A way of seeing. In many ways, that’s what Christianity is. It’s a way of seeing the people, places, and events that make up the stories of our lives. For fallen human beings who don’t always see the world very clearly, it is a wonderful thing!

Isn’t it strange, though, how strongly most of us resist 20/20 vision? Living in what is so often a dark world, we hardly know how to react to the new light and vision offered by Christ. When we finally allow him to illumine our lives, we are amazed to find that life takes on new color as it comes more and more into focus.

Guess that old school nurse did me a favor, after all. And I’m absolutely sure that Christ did.