What’s that in your eye?

Recently I had a few family members at my lunch table and there was laughter, a few tears, a lot of love and plenty of fun. During the course of the conversation I mentioned someone who had done something unkind to me, one of the “girls” spoke and said that she noticed this person had “cold” eyes.

I thought of that when I got an email this week and someone I have never met in person but who has been a reader for over a year and seen pictures on my Social Media pages, wrote an assessment of me, first I was very flattered, but one thing stood out to me, it was the description of my eyes as being “big, sparkling, bright eyes!”

When I look at our canine member of the family, Ruby, her eyes look sad and makes you want to give her an extra treat, while P’nut, the poodle who died this past December, had sharp little eyes that warned he was always ready to bite the hand that fed him and toward the end of his life were clouded with cataracts. I heard an old recording of a lady evangelist who had come to the Lord at one of my dad’s tent revivals in his early ministry and she said, “I looked at that young man preaching and I saw fire coming from his eyes! I knew I had to go to that altar and meet his Jesus!”

I look into my mother’s eyes and see there a vacancy, a look of searching her surroundings to find something familiar and waiting for her parents to come back and get her, and it is heart breaking. I have seen the look of love for me in a man’s eyes, the look of hate from someone who decided they didn’t like me, and from another a cold stare that could chill your soul, how does a pair of eyes convey all of those things?

In the Bible eyes are mentioned 482 times. The first mention was when Satan said to Eve “then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil,” then “she looked at the tree and it was pleasant to her eyes.”

We know that God sees us, He knows what is going on with us from reading 2 Chronicles 16:9 “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” That verse comforts you if you are living inside His will or terrifies you if you are living in sin because you see that He is watching you.

I found something very interesting when looking for the phrase “the eyes are the windows of the soul”, “The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth the door. The intellect, the will, is seen in the eye; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man’s intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye.” Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805 – 1873)

Biblically speaking, Matthew 6:22-23 “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squint-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” Psalm 34:15 “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.”

We see that God has His eyes on us and He is listening for our cries the way a parent sleeps “with one eye open” when they have a baby, listening for their every whimper.

In my mind’s eye I am seeing a horse, he has a white face and large, soft eyes that seem to be in pain, I’m not sure where that came from just writing it as I see it. It would be my worst fear that I would cause anyone pain, that I would see that pain in their eyes, and especially not my Creator. Open your eyes, take off the blinders with which Satan will try to block your vision, let the Word of God remove the spiritual cataracts so that you can see truth from deception and be careful what you are letting your eyes bring into your soul, it will pollute your whole body!

Until we meet again, here’s looking at you kid!