The last surgery of the day at work was an hour-long procedure for glaucoma involving implanting a valve in the patient’s eye.  (I know you just blinked and thought “Ow – how can they do such a thing??”)

My job at work is helping patients on the recovery end of the surgical experience.  The majority of our patients get cataract surgery and since that surgery takes seven to fifteen minutes (depending on the surgeon) I am busy with patient after patient and without any time to see what others are doing.  Well today, all of the patients were done and gone except for this last one.  We were kind of standing around waiting when one of the operating room techs asked if I wanted to watch the surgery.  “Yes!!”

I only got to watch through the glass of the door.  I would have had to scrub and don sterile garb if I wanted to enter the room.  BUT – even though the surgeon was busy working on his patient through the eyes of his microscope, I could watch the procedure on the big screen tv in the room.  Wow!  On the screen, the patient’s eye was the size of a small watermelon.  With a clamp holding back the upper and lower lids, the surgeon was meticulously putting stitches in the patient’s eye.  Yes – stitches.  In their EYE!  What looked like a fair size surgical needle was probably the size of an eyelash.  And the material he used to stitch with – I was in awe thinking of how very fine and yet intensely strong the thread must be that he could stitch and knot without it breaking.  Obviously, these stitches were not going to be removed down the road, so they had to be a material that would eventually dissolve as well.  I was thoroughly amazed at the marvels of modern medicine that could allow surgeons to implant valves and actually stitch an eyeball.  I wonder who put their hand up and volunteered for that surgery the first time it was done.  And what a benefit to be able to see the whole thing on a big screen tv.

As I thought later about my eye surgery observation, it made me think about this bible passage:

Matthew 7: 3-5 ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Psalm 44:21 says that God knows the secrets of our hearts.  He is like the surgeon who knows us inside and out, and intimately as well, down to the secrets we keep hidden in our hearts.  He knows the good and the wicked.  He has the microscopic view.  But how often do we hide the negative, doubting, or sinful stuff and then quickly turn and call our brother bad and a sinner?  Maybe if God put our hearts on the big screen, we’d have a better picture of our own weaknesses and faults.  It may make us less likely to judge, and more likely to show compassion.

Then this all made me think – even though God has the microscopic view of our hearts, thank goodness He DOESN’T project it on the big screen.

I think that would be a film we wouldn’t want others to see!

Just Laurel