Wide Eyes

How precious is the gift of sight. To be able to look into the face of another of God's creations and see joy and happiness. To be able to see someone smile. To see someone looking into YOUR eyes with love. The ability to see face-to-face is a treasure too often lost in the techno world of smart phones, messaging and e-mail.

Sight, however, also comes with a down side. We also see tears and frowns and hurting expressions of those we love. Seeing those things can cause our own countenance to change. WE hurt because THEY hurt and we can often see the expressions of that pain of the otherwise beautiful faces of those we meet each day.

"15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep." - Romans 12:15

We also can be tempted through our vision, our sight. A beautiful man or woman can be tempting to the opposite sex, by the world's standards. We can sometimes find our eyes venturing places where they shouldn't go.

Why then did God give us eyes if it was not to see the hurting as well as the joyful? God gave us eyes for a reason. To bring home . . . to make more personal . . . the objects of His creation. And to test us.

We hear news stories about the homeless for example. We hear them and for the most part we ignore them. We are comfortable in our own little part of our own little world. Yeah, it's tough they don't have a home. It's sad they're sleeping in their car. What's for dinner?

But then God arranges a face-to-face meeting and the stakes change. Suddenly someone's homeless situation becomes real to us when we find ourselves sitting across the table from someone who doesn't know where they will be sleeping that night . . . where they will find shelter. We can SEE the look in their eyes - a little desperation mixed with some hopelessness - a helpless, unwilling submission to a sad situation. It is a resignation of the spirit . . . in the soul of one of God's images.

So, what are we to do? How can I help? What does JESUS tell us to do?

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" - Matthew 6:22-24

As with most things, what is needed most in this world is Jesus. But how is Jesus made known to a hurting world? Go look in a mirror. Stare into the eyes of someone God specifically created to honor Him with service, devotion, obedience, and love.

Jesus is the key in all of this. He is administered on this earth through the love and compassion we show others.

If we get up each morning, look in that mirror and ask, "Who am I going to love today, in the name of Jesus?" I am willing to bet our day with be much better than most. If we quit thinking about ourselves and reach out to someone else in love, suddenly we find OURSELVES feeling better and more encouraged than before. But more important than that, more important than our SELVES feeling better, we will have been obedient to God. And that is the best feeling of all.

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” - 2 Corinthians 4:5

Wide Eyed - Nichole Nordeman