Saturday, July 10

If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, it is full of darkness.
—Luke 11:34b

Billboards, computer screens, television commercials, words on a page, a trembling leaf, a hurting child, the sky so blue, the embrace of lovers. 

Our eyes take in an incredible amount of information every day, and those images are stored in the memory banks of our mind. We cannot stop our eyes from seeing the images of life, but we can exercise an awareness, an attention to what "catches our eye."

What do you see? What will fill your body with light? What will overshadow it in darkness? Do you pull your gaze away from those who are in pain? Do you find yourself riveted for hours as you surf the net for things to buy? Do you see the beauty of each human being, or see only the flaws that make them unattractive? 

Are your eyes on the lookout for goodness or are they deadened to goodness because they are habituated to watching what is meaningless? The healthy eye is the discerning eye, the loving eye, and the compassionate eye. And from such eyes shine the light of discernment, love, and compassion. What are you going to see today?

Cast my eye on you, O God, as I glance this day at your world. Let me see as you see and love with the light of your love.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.