Last evening one of my sons kept opening the refrigerator without taking anything out. I asked him what he was doing. He said he wanted orange juice and was hoping some would appear if he kept looking. I was puzzled to say the least, “Do you mean like magic?” I asked him, “No, like Mom eyes,” was his reply.
Now I was really intrigued. I asked him to further illuminate me. He explained that it is like when I ask him to go get a bottle of ketchup out of the pantry. He can look three times through the entire pantry and when he finally gives up and asks me for help, when I go to look, all of a sudden, there is the ketchup bottle right in the front! I had to laugh of course, although there definitely feels like some truth to his theory.
Just like my son was hoping to see things through my eyes in the refrigerator last night, there are also times when I need to borrow someone else’s eyes, or at least their point of view. If I can’t put myself in someone else’s place or imagine what it might feel like to be them, my relationships with other people are simply not going to go very well. We need a lot of empathy to have healthy relationships and also to be there for people who need our help.
There is also another set of eyes that I need to view myself and the world with and those are Jesus’ eyes. If I can use His lens to accurately look into my heart and soul and see the things I need to change, I will grow to be more like Him. If I can see myself the way He sees me, how wonderful He thinks I am and how special He made me, I will have the confidence to share my gifts with the world. If we can look around at our fellow humans with His love, empathy and grace and share the truth about Jesus, then salvation will appear in people’s hearts more surely than orange juice in the refrigerator!
“Ears that hear and eyes that see–the Lord has made them both.” Proverbs 20:12
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