Filtered Lenses

What if we each see the world through filtered lenses?
Lenses of our own design made to keep out what we think will hurt us?
We come into this world without a filter. But quickly we learn what we want to except as reality, and what we will pretend doesn't exhist.
We think these lenses will protect us.
But what if they are keeping us from experiencing real joy, happiness and love?
Each trial that we go through puts a crack in our lens. 
Every sorry, disappointment, and heartbreak reveals something we had hoped to block out.  Then we are forced to feel. To REALLY feel. 
Seeing the sorrow lets us appreciate the joy. Seeing sickness helps us appreciate health. Loneliness shows us how precious friends and family are.
At some point we will each have to pass through a trial of such magnitude that we will either cling to our lenses, or let them burn in the fire. 
Only then can we see people for who they really are. Children of God. And only then can we stop clinging to this life, because we see eternity.