was laughing and having a good time with some friends one day. Suddenly I raised my hand and rubbed my eye. Instantly I couldn't see. I stopped dead in my tracks. What's going on? Time went into slow motion, my fear rising. I blinked a couple of times to try to focus. Then it hit me. My contact lens had fallen out!

"Don't move," I warned everybody. I commissioned my friends to help me look for it. Getting on their hands and knees, they surveyed the floor. Looking down, I had doubts that I would ever get back the other half of my eyesight, but part of me was still hopeful.

"What does it look like?" one of my friends asked. Oh no, I groaned. How can they help me find it if they don't even know what it looks like? I knew, but couldn't see. I felt helpless. With a sinking feeling I imagined my contact crushed on the bottom of someone's shoe. As I started to shake my head into my hands I saw a tiny glimmer on my finger. I took a closer look. Perfectly perched on the edge my forefinger was my precious contact!

Although this happened several years ago, I still remember the fear of losing my sight. How many times do we rub the contacts out of our own lives and lose sight of God? Only when our world starts to look dark do we realize how much we need Him to see. We live in a visual age. We're constantly bombarded with eye-catching pictures and in-your-face commercials on television and the Internet. Advertising strategists know that the flashiest logo and catchiest jingle placed in front of the right audience will guarantee a sale. In God's awesome wisdom He knew from the beginning that our keeping Him in focus would also keep us from being distracted with worldly pleasures. Losing our contact with God is much like losing our eyesight-it can happen gradually, or it can happen instantly. But both yield the same dire consequences: our inability to see the true light. How do we get back our contact with God and keep it? What if we did not keep God in our sight to begin with? How do we focus? Where do we start?

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Psychologists have long recognized that babies display characteristic behavior. They observe that what babies can't see ceases to exist to them. When researchers place an object in front of the babies and then hide it behind a screen, the babies don't make an effort to look for it behind the screen. They don't even look surprised that it's gone. They forget all about it. This is the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomenon. To the Christian, the reverse is true. When Christ is out of mind, He's out of sight. We can no longer see Him. In other words, our spiritual contacts start falling out as we push Him farther away. When we lose our contact with Christ, we're on the pathway to becoming blind.

The disciples, who had the privilege of walking and talking with Christ in person, had this problem. Thomas asked Jesus how they were to find the way. Jesus simply replied, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).*

In The Desire of Ages Ellen White vividly recounts what happened next: "But not yet did the disciples understand. 'Lord, show us the Father,' exclaimed Philip, 'and it sufficeth us.' Amazed at his dullness of comprehension, Christ asked with pained surprise, 'Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?' Is it possible that you do not see the Father in the works He does through Me? Do you not believe that I came to testify of the Father? . . . 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'" (p. 663).

In this short passage we see the disciples' contacts dangerously beginning to slip out. The person whom they were asking for was standing right before their eyes! All the precious moments they had spent with Jesus, all the miracles they had witnessed, amounted to nil in that one statement of Philip's: "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us" (John 14:8). Yes, they could see Him clearly with their physical eyes, but their spiritual eyes were clouded. It is no wonder, then, how much more confused Christians are today, facing a double dose of blindness.

Into the Light
I remember getting my first pair of glasses. After months of squinting failed, I knew I needed help. As soon as I put them on I was in awe of my surroundings. I could see every blade of grass. Being "blind" for so long, I had forgotten what it felt like to be able to see clearly. So it is with being spiritually blind. One of the great challenges of the Christian walk is to stay connected to God. An even greater challenge, however, is finding Him when you've forgotten what He looks like. God's solution is simple: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). To seek God means to search for Him on our knees. Prayer is our direct personal line to God. When we diligently search with our hearts, we will find Him.

After we've sought and found, we cling. God doesn't want us to become so comfortable that we forget He's there, remembering Him only in times of trouble. His desire is for us to depend on Him so much that even when we're able to see again, we still allow Him to lead.

In the context of finding our focus and staying connected, one of my favorite people in the Bible is Ruth. A Moabite, she grew up worshiping idols. But then she met her husband, an Israelite man who, with his family, had moved to Moab because of a famine in the land of Judah. Then tragedy struck. All the men in the family died, and Ruth was left with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and sister-in-law, Orpah. Naomi longed to go back home. She urged Ruth and Orpah to stay in Moab and go back to their families and former life. Orpah finally agreed, but Ruth pleaded to stay with her.

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay" (Ruth 1:16). What was it that so attracted Ruth to Naomi that she would rather stay with her than go back home? I used to think that maybe it was because Naomi was just the best mother-in-law of all time. Indeed, Naomi was an outstanding woman, but it was her faith in God that attracted Ruth.

"Your people will be my people and your God my God" (verse 16). Something remarkable had happened to Ruth-she'd caught a glimpse of the one true God and didn't want to lose sight of Him. Ruth was able to abandon her former life and move on to a life in God. She underwent a complete transformation. How did she do it? God tells us, "Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye" (Prov. 7:2). She'd found her contact. Ruth saw something special in her mother-in-law and wanted to hold on to it. The King James Version says that Ruth "clave" unto Naomi (Ruth 1:14). At this point Ruth couldn't bear to be separated from the one woman in whom she saw God's love, compassion, and humility.

I assume Ruth didn't know God before she met Naomi. Despite this she was still able to recognize Him. Once a person catches a glimpse of God, it's often difficult to ignore. That's how long-suffering God is. Even when we've lost sight of Him, He never loses sight of us. It's our job to present ourselves to Him. God counsels us to put salve on our eyes so we can see (Rev. 3:18). Eyesalve is heaven's cure for spiritual blindness. As soon as we can see clearly, our whole perception shifts. Worldly pleasures that once appeared to be rewarding are now seen for what they really are-empty, dead-end pursuits.

All that we can see of God here on earth is incomparable to how we will see Him in heaven. "In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12, TLB). Now, that's a glimpse worth waiting for.

*All Scripture texts in this article are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

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Lahai Allen, a senior journalism major at Columbia Union College, worked at the Adventist Review office as a summer intern.