GOD GIVES US EYES
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6:22
Of all the human organs, the eye is by far the most difficult to understand. It’s only the size of a ping-pong ball, but it has the ability to handle 1½ million messages at one time. How does the eye work? The cornea organizes the light rays which then strike the lens. The image is then projected on the retina where 130 million rod-shaped cells determine the color of the object. Each cell is connected to the optic nerve that sends 300 mile-an-hour messages to the brain. No wonder our eyes need to rest at night!
We seldom give any thought to the work our eyes do. In his wisdom, God knew just how to make them work for us. And not only us, God made special eyes for the animals too. Butterflies can see more colors than we can. Cats’ eyes can see in the dark while chameleon eyes move independent of each other so they can see in two directions at the same time. The giant squid has eyes the size of soccer balls, and the eyes of the hippopotamus are on top of its head so they can put their heads under water and still see above the water. Husky dogs often have a blue eye and a brown eye.
Blind people must learn to read by feeling Braille bumps on a page. They often have difficulty sleeping at night and staying awake during the day because they can’t tell the light of day from the darkness at night. We know that Jesus gave sight to many blind people. Paul was struck with blindness when Jesus called him to be a missionary.
Sometimes the Bible speaks of God’s sight. Proverbs 15:3 says: “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” God sees everything we do. There are times when our eyes cry. Many of the beautiful pictures of heaven mention our crying eyes. Revelation 7:17 tells us: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Some of the Bible’s most wonderful words about our eyes are from the story of Job, the man who lost everything because he believed in God. Yet after all the tragedy, Job was able to tell us what he was looking forward to. He said that when he gets to heaven there is only one thing that he wants to see: “I myself will see [God] with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:27). One day we will be able to see Jesus.
He gave us eyes to see things,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.
From Living for Jesus by Reynold R. Kremer