A Blind Eye Sees for the First Time

“I was never a person to be out in front of everything. I was always to myself because I didn't have friends growing up.”

As a child, Naya endured constant bullying. Mostly because she was blind in her left eye. 

“I was born half-blind, my eye would actually be sitting on the corner of my – on the left, it would not move, it would just sit there. I was known as the ugly child.”

The bullying didn’t stop at school.

“My brothers and sisters, their nickname to me was Cross-eyed Rambo. I wasn't accepted by anyone. I was that black sheep of the family is what they call it. That was me.”

As she got older, Naya got into drugs and alcohol in an attempt to fit in with those around her. But nothing helped.

“I was depressed. I didn't care about myself. I didn't care what happened to me. When I got tired of the bullying, my defense was I was just going to fight, and then I got – I got into so many fights.”

Partying and fighting continued into her late 20s. Now a single mother to 5 girls, Naya knew she needed to be a better person and mother.

“I had, you know, a live-in boyfriend type things and I was – I used to smoke cigarettes, I used to party, I used to drink and I wanted to change for my kids because I thought they were going down a path that I was – that I went down, and I didn't want that for them. And I was like, ‘No, I can't do this. I will break this chain.’”

Then a friend invited her to church, where Naya heard a message that God could heal her mind and her heart.

“And I was thinking ‘Okay, God, this is what you want, fine. I-I tried every other way, I'm going to try it your way now.’ And I did.”

Naya dedicated her life to Christ and for the next 4 years went to church regularly, growing in her faith. But it wasn’t until one morning at a Bible retreat with her church, that she could fully grasp God’s love for her.

She had woken up with a sore throat, and during the morning worship, Naya asked her friends to lay hands on her and pray for healing.

“I just felt so deep in worship. I just felt his presence so close to me. I felt like if I opened my eyes I would see him. I just opened them and then it was crazy cause I-I saw a light on my left side. And I closed my eyes, like ‘What?! -Okay, what was that?’”

She opened them again.

“It was clear. It wasn't even like cloudy. It was clear as if I was looking on my right side. So I-I don't understand my brain because it was like my left side is seeing what my right side sees. So I'm looking at my best friend and I’m like, ‘I see you.’ And she's looking at me like, ‘What are you talking…’ And then I covered my right eye and looked her in her eyes and I looked at her and I said, ‘I see you.’ And she kinda like caught it. We all just burst out into joy. There’re literally no words to explain the feeling that I felt.”

Her doctor confirmed that the vision in Naya’s left eye had been restored, and with time, her eye will straighten completely.

“The beauty. The beauty of my children, I can fully see my children and just like I think my kids are more beautiful than ever I was just so grateful that God gave this to me.”

For Naya, it was more than seeing her world more clearly, but feeling the presence of a loving, heavenly Father.  

“I've been through so much in my life and now that I sit here and I think about it, he was there every step of the way, He accepted me since birth, and I didn't get that until all this happened and it's just – it's so overwhelming. He showed me ‘You're my child. I got you. Like don't worry, I got you.’ I have a heavenly father, I have heavenly love.”