Selective Sight

You shall not bow down to them; for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to the a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:5-6 A precious little one that I know has a glass eye. We’ll call him Jack. Beyond the lack of his eye, Jack has a lot of other challenges. His brain hasn’t caught up with his chronology and it most likely never will. My expectation is that Jack will always need someone close by to help him through life. He’s a needy kid who is also a little bit on the naughty side. It was his uniquely naughty nature that taught me a spiritual lesson. You see, little Jack can pop out that glass eye and he does. The other day while I was with him another child in the room was yelling, “Eye, eye, eye.” Not having experienced Jack’s particular talent I heard it is “I, I, I”. Just as I was about to ask her to please be patient, another adult in the room responded. First, she thanked the little girl for pointing out the problem. Then she scooped up the eyeball and placed it in a little pouch. Reinserting it would be addressed later. I looked at sweet Jack and saw that eyelid closed as he continued with his very important task of spinning a cup on the table. So precious! It may not sound precious to you but if you could see this kid….! Later while praying and reading Scripture I saw Jack’s antics in a different light. Jack was task avoiding, so he popped his eye out. For a moment I thought about that. How often do I pop out or even just close my spiritual eyes? Answer: When I’m avoiding the Truth, when like Jonah before me I’m running away. Jack can’t see with that glass eye, so removing it is really just a naughty behavior. I, we, can pop our eyes out or at least turn them away from what we don’t want to see. That’s great when it’s something offensive but it isn’t great when like little Jack, it’s a naughty (read sinful) behavior. We read and sing about turning our eyes toward Jesus, toward our Father, toward heaven. When we do it may bring challenges but it also brings us closer to God. When we pop our eyes out or cast them away from God we miss out on so much. We look at lesser things. We deny the sacred in favor of the mundane or worse, the offensive. Pray today to have eyes that see and to keep those eyes, not just in their sockets but focused on what is true, lovely and praise worthy. Let that sight lead us closer and closer to our Savior and Lord.

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