We have all had the experience of being in a store when an item on a shelf jumps out and screams, “buy me”! On a recent trip to a big box store, the above picture immediately caught my attention. It found its way into my shopping cart and now hangs inside my doorway. It’s clever. It also reminds me of having yearly eye tests at school. Remember those? Do they still do them? I remember telling the doctor one year that I couldn’t read the chart in the hopes of getting glasses like my friend Todd. Todd looked good in glasses, so I figured I would, too. The doctor wasn’t fooled.
We have all had the experience of going to an eye doctor. We take care of them because we know how important they are. They are arguably the most valuable piece of property on the human body. Did you know that they are so important that they require 50% of our brain’s functionality to work? If you think that’s amazing, consider this: your eyes contain 7 million cones, which help you to see colour and detail and 100 million cells called rods, which help you to see better in the dark. The body also has its special mechanisms for taking care of our eyes. The average person blinks 15-20 times a minute, which means that we spend 10% of our waking time with our eyes closed. And here is an interesting tidbit for your next cocktail party: scallops have more eyes than any other creature. A single scallop can have over 100 pairs of eyes. Do you ever wonder if your food is looking at you? Now you know.
Our Christian scriptures also celebrate the importance of our eyes. In Luke 11, it says, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body is full of light.”
Proverbs 4 says, “Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.” That’s good advice for those who always find themselves looking in life’s rearview mirror.”
And then there is Psalm 119, “Open my eyes that I may see, the wondrous things God has given to me.” A very clever composer turned this phrase into a stirring hymn.
I have always believed it’s a truism in life that we see what we want to see. Our eyes are an extension of our thoughts. If we are convinced that life is threatening, uncertain and dangerous, we will see plenty of things to support that mindset. On the other hand, if we are determined to see what is good, good things will appear. I remember when I was looking to buy a car, I went to see a Hyundai Elantra at the dealership. During the week between seeing it a buying it, the roads seemed to be filled with Hyundai Elantra’s. We tend to see what we are thinking about.
That is why I put this eye chart picture beside my front door. Just in case your eyesight is not what it used to be, it says, “always be sure to look for the good in everything you see”. I want to read that every day before I walk out the door. It is both an invitation and a challenge to use the 90% of the time my eyes are open during the day to focus on the “wondrous things God has given to me.”
