Education
Corrective Vision We hear a lot about “vision” today. People will frequently have a Vision Statement regarding their own future and calling, churches have a vision how they desire to do ministry in the community, and businesses have a vision how to grow their market share or their customer base. Vision in these arenas has to do with planning for the future and goal setting. When we hear the term “casting a vision” we might even have a mental picture of someone throwing out a net to capture a snapshot of the future. Vision can also refer to sight. This has recently taken on additional meaning for me since I just went through surgeries to have cataracts removed from both eyes. This is quite a simple procedure today that can profoundly impact your vision. I did not realize how poor my vision was until I was blessed with new “lenses.” My sight has never been this good! Things are better defined; they have edges and are crisp and colorful. Your vision is a gift more appreciated when you realize it can be lost. My vision wasn’t bad, it was just fuzzy. That can happen to the vision cast for institutions and for individuals as well. The edges can begin to dissolve and the focus can become blurred. If that happens, it is important for us to clear it up, to challenge ourselves to refocus our vision. I am pleased to say that the Board and Administration for Holland Christian is doing that right now. We are checking our vision for the future and trying hard to determine our priorities as we move forward. We need to put in new lenses and see where we should make changes, where we should consider a new design, and even more importantly, where we should not make any changes at all. We want to have a process for our school family to develop a much clearer vision regarding who we are, gaining a better understanding of what it is that we have been called to do and how we can be best equipped to fulfill that calling. This is important work and even more critical today as resources have become more limited and difficult choices must be made. Casting a vision for the future and talking about restored sight are all well and good but in this season of the year there is an even more important interpretation of the idea of vision. If we think about the story of Christ’s birth, it was really a series of visions that led to this amazing event. Zachariah had a powerful vision of the birth of the Messiah. Elizabeth had a vision about the role of her son preceding the Savior. Mary had a vision about her amazing calling as the mother of the Christ-child. Joseph had a vision to help him understand the unbelievable. The wisemen had a vision about the guiding stars. The shepherds had a vision about the birth of the Savior. It was one incredible vision after another that predicted the future: first the birth, then the life, the death, and the resurrection. Each one of these things was essential in our victory over sin. Our attempt to develop a vision for this school pales in comparison to the visions forecasting the birth of a Savior. The world has never been the same since. Indeed any vision of the future that we might want to advance must be linked to the visions first told in the story of Christ’s birth. May you and your family have a blessed Christmas filled with the precious gifts of hope and love that we have been given through the birth of Jesus Christ. May you experience first-hand this Christmas season the corrective vision we now can enjoy as a result of those gifts of love and hope.