Blinded By the Light
William Shakespeare said, “The eyes are the window to your soul.” Assuming our eyes are functioning correctly, eyes do not lie. They see things as they really are. We might perceive or interpret what we see incorrectly, but the misinterpretation problem does not lie with our eyes. Our eyes see the truth, no matter what spin we try to put on that which we see. We can look into someone’s eyes to gauge so much about them. Think about someone with a glazed-over look or a wide-eyed look of astonishment. Or how about the person with tears in their eyes or that glare you get from someone who is not happy with you.
Our eyes help us create emotions. I remember the utter heartache I felt as we walked down the street in New Bern, my eyes interpreting the devastation Hurricane Florence inflicted upon our beautiful historic town back in 2018. On the contrary, I only need to see the beach and the ocean to feel a sense of serenity. What the eyes see often helps to bring our emotions, thoughts, and imagination into focus. What we see affects our heart. What we see affects our mind. What do you “see” when you see a sunrise or sunset, falling snow, a butterfly, a flower, autumn leaf colors, a baby’s smile, a beautiful bride? What do you see when you look into the heavens?
The Bible talks about our eyes being the window to seeing or not seeing God. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, his teaching on how to live a life full of love and grace, wisdom and discernment, a life dedicated and pleasing to God, says this – “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, hoe great is the darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23). I believe these two verses tell us that it is through our eyes that we find our way. Light comes into our body through our eyes, and we either are “see” light or we “see” darkness. Light illuminates God while darkness blinds us to God.
Our fallen nature keeps us from seeing God fully. Our fallen nature lets darkness in, and we need the power of God’s Spirit to “see” God. We need ask God to guard our eyes from all that blinds us from seeing him. We need the revelation of God in order to grasp his goodness. The prophet Isaiah, when challenging people, whose vision had been darkened from continually looking onto the face of their idols, to look into the skies, said this – “Look up at the sky! Who created the stars you see? The one who leads them out like an army, he knows how many there are and calls each one by name! His power is so great – not one of them is ever missing!” (Isaiah 40:26, GNT).
Psalm 119:18 gives us a similar message – “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your laws.” Here the Psalter is praying for a life of fellowship with God, in obedience to God’s divine revelations, so that he can “see” the wonderful things found in God’s instruction. Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm, consisting of a section for each of the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet. V.18 is in the third section Gimel, the third letter in that alphabet.
Today, if your ability to “clearly see” has been blinded, ask God for “clear” vision. Rather than being blinded by the darkness, ask God to help you be “Blinded by the Light.” (That is the title and lyrics of a song written and first recorded by Bruce Springsteen then later covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.)
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