How well can human beings see in the dark? The answer may surprise you! Although it is hard to conceive, scientists estimate that, when conditions are ideal, it is possible for men to see the flame of a single candle more than seventeen miles away! We are told that sometimes we can see dim light better if we don't directly look at it because the dim-light sensitive rod cells are mostly located at the edge of our retina. Even though the cones in the center of the retina can see very fine detail, they can't see dimly lit objects at all. Looking out of the side of our eye places an image right on the edge of our retina, where your rod cells can pick it up easily.

Have you noticed how your vision is affected right after turning off the lights? In minutes you can again see much better. The reason why is because the retina contains two types of cells. Rod-shaped cells work best in dim light and cone shaped cells work best in bright light. However, sudden bright light brakes rod cells apart and therefore our eye must work constantly to repair rods. A blind spot develops in our vision after a flashbulb goes off because the sudden bright light creates a patch of broken rods.

The area in your eye where the optic nerve passes through the retina is lacking rods and cones. This area is commonly known as our blind spot. If it were not for two eyes which each have a blind spot located 12 degrees to one and opposite sides of the eye, we find ourselves constantly losing our sight. If the blind spot was located in the center of each eye/retina, we would have to shift our eyes or change our position to see at times. It is the combining of images from both eyes that cancels out the potential effects of these blind spots. One eye supplies the missing information absent from the other eye and even fills in the missing information.

Not only do our eyes have "blind spots," but anyone who learns how to drive is familiar with that terminology. We are told that more than 80 percent of injuries and deaths involving children and school buses are caused by bus drivers having to deal with blind spots near the front or back of the bus. The use of convex and auxiliary "side-mirrors" is one method employed by drivers to reveal those blind spots.

Jesus identifies the existence of spiritual "blind spots" in Matthew 7: 4-5 -- "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." A moat is a small speck of dust while a beam is a piece of timber. Jesus states that man's spiritual blind spots are caused by the large beams of sin blocking one's own sight. Jesus indicates that individuals have "spiritual blind spots" when he/she cannot see his/her own sin even though the sin is far greater than that which he/she sees in the life of another.

Without question, if we have lived any length of time, we all recognize that we too have such spiritual blind spots. There are at least three "side mirrors" that the Bible identifies as able to aid us in seeing. We can "attach" these mirrors and avoid the injury and fatalities caused by these spiritual blind spots. The first "side mirror" is the Word of God. As James 1:22-25 states, the use of the spiritual mirror of Bible truth, has the potential of revealing our blind spots. Secondly, the Spirit of God is designed to show us ourselves for his ministry is to convict us of sin, sin that so easily hides itself in our lives. The third is "friends" as stated in Proverbs 27:6 - "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." How often can others see our short comings far better than we our self? Part of the responsibility of fellow believers, and the local church as a whole, is to challenge each other about areas of Christian living that are not in line with our Lord (cp. Hebrews 10:23-25). A true friend will tell hold up the mirror which reveals our sins and weaknesses. We need each other to grow as believers! In fact, if we are married, one of those "friends" is our spouse. If we are part of a family, those "friends" include children and parents.

It will only be as we avoid the Word of God, resist the Spirit of God, or rebuff friends who desire to help us see ourselves, that we will continue to injure and "kill" others! We may have already run over a good number of people in our lives because of our blind spots, but we can lower the injuries and fatalities by opening our hearts to admonition and correction!