Why Do Some People Need Glasses?

Have you ever wondered how glasses fix vision problems? Let’s find out!

Our eyes take in light through a process called refraction (re-FRACK-shun—the bending of light through objects). Light must focus on your retina (the back part of your eye that senses light) for you to see correctly. Sometimes the shape of a person’s eye keeps light from correctly hitting the retina. This is called a refractive error. These errors cause most vision problems.

Some types of refractive errors include:

1. Nearsightedness—when faraway objects look blurry.
2. Farsightedness—when close-up objects look blurry.
3. Astigmatism (uh-STIG-muh-tih-zum)—when your cornea is an uneven shape, it bends light in different directions. Both faraway and close-up objects can look blurry.

People with refractive errors often wear glasses or contact lenses to correct their eyesight. Glasses and contacts fix vision problems by directing light into the right spot in your eyes.

Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they had perfect vision. But now in our fallen world, our bodies are no longer perfect, including our eyes. We can be thankful that God gave mankind the intelligence needed to invent glasses and contact lenses to keep our eyes working well!

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