With What Eye

The picture today is my granddaughter Bekah who last spring graduated from the Grady School of Journalism at The University of Georgia. She is part of my theatrical family. Sorry Rich it's your family even if you don't want to be theatrical. Bekah is looking at a scene she is bout to film in the picture to the right. You can see her mind calculating and assessing the scene. She sees differently than I do. We talk about movies sometimes and we can walk out of a movie with a completely different impression because she immediately analyzes every facet of the film while I just watch for entertainment and enlightenment. I have looked at her and said, "What movie did you go to?"

My son, as an educator of troubled young people, looks at his kids with a different set of eyes too. I listened to him this summer as we talked about school and he spoke of his focus on his strength, which is compassion. It was funny to some extent because my son was and is a tough kid. Not the type you would think looks at others with eyes of compassion. It is how he gets through his students external protective mechanisms, and reaches the heart of the matter. Another set of eyes that are not mine. Many people came through my office and I was helpful to many, and I'm not saying I didn't feel compassion, but I was not looking through eyes of compassion as my son described it.

My set of eyes when they are clear and focused looks at the world through God's eyes. They are listening eyes. Taking in the data from the surrounding world with a filter that asks God what he wants me to see. I am amazed how God shows me something different in people who outwardly look the same and have the apparent same situations. In my last parish through the soup kitchen I met and would talk to a variety of prostitutes who were part of the daily crowd. Not appearing any different to the outward eye and yet one God would show me to be a poor little girl trapped, while another who outwardly looked no different God would show me to be a hardened threat. God's grace of listening eyes led me and protected me. Listening eyes helped God accomplish his purpose and so often surprised me with his power that I could not miss his hand at work around me. I would be heading someplace which seemed important, and God would suddenly send me in a different direction, because he helped me see a situation that needed immediate action. So often I would show up somewhere not knowing why only to find out that it was exactly where God needed me. For my work listening eyes were invaluable, but I don't think just for my work.

I think we can all work on our eyesight. I could work at developing more of my son's compassionate eyes, because I think God wants us to have that kind of eyes. I could develop better eyes for seeing the beauty and drama around me that my granddaughter sees so well. You could probably come up with other kinds of vision that are gifts from God to be used for good.

If the eyes are the windows of the soul. What will people see in your eyes and what will your soul see through your eyes. With what eyes will you see. I once was blind but now I see. I wasn't blind but I couldn't see. Thank you God for healing my different kind of blindness.