Through His eyes…
Today, my son Rocky, who is almost 22 months old walked up to our Christmas tree and said, “Daddy, look at da lights”…
It’s mid January and we put up the tree in November. I’ve “looked at the lights” and the ornaments on that tree a million times since then…and so has Rocky… But today, because of his unrelenting requests for me too “look at da lights” I really felt compelled to get down on his level and “see what he sees”…
So I bent down and sat in the floor and said, “Tell daddy about the lights”. Rocky began to point to each individual light naming the color (always starting with blue-his favorite color), “Blue light, Red light, Purpoe light (spelled phonetically for Rocky speak), Gareen light, Yellow light, Pink light…” Then he proceeded to name and describe the ornaments, “Gareen Nutcracker Man, Blue Monkey, Purpoe ball, Red Lem-a-lem (which again is Rocky speak for M&M), Blue Ball… “
Strangely enough, I was seeing some of these (truly seeing them) for the first time…The details, the green pants on the red nutcracker man, the green ball that the yellow bear was holding…Rocky had always seen them and was now pointing them out in detail to me…but I didn’t until I looked at them through “His eyes” and let him “tell Daddy about the lights”.
I began to ask him questions, “Where is the Blue Dinosaur?” Immediately he would walk around the tree to point out exactly where it was hanging… I didn’t realize it until that moment, but to him, that was “his tree”…He had taken inventory, studied it, appreciated the small things, even taking the time to appreciate the individuality of “Blue Light” and “Gareen Lights”.
There are HUNDREDS of lights on the tree, I saw them collectively, but he was showing me a different perspective…the individual aspects of each…
How easily and nonchalantly we walk past the ornate Christmas trees in our lives failing to see the individual aspects that each piece contributes… The sweet smile of the woman at the check out who is always so nice when she scans your groceries…The eyes filled with wisdom of the elderly man who sits alone on the park bench enjoying, NO CHERISHING life, while contemplating how he has lived or the hurdles that he has overcome…The laughter of the children playing in the street, living for today, embracing the moment…The pain on the face of the woman who walked by at the mall whose life is in shambles right now and needs someone to tell her “She’s worthy”… The individuals that can so easily be lost in the collective whole…
But, when we see the Christmas trees through “His eyes”, none are only part of a whole…but each are individually worthy of being seen, noticed, and appreciated…they are each one different…Each contribute to the whole…Each are important to the whole…Each one is valuable when seen through “His eyes”…To Him, it’s not “a green light” it’s “HIS Green Light”…
At 3am this morning I hung up my phone after talking with a friend who was needing someone to be there…I leaned over to turn off the computer and so clearly heard something that I wasn’t expecting…a still, small voice that said, “Thank you for loving my kids”… At the time it seemed “relevant” but it fell short of feeling “impacting”…
Today, after learning the lesson of the Christmas tree from my son, I realize that maybe God was preparing my heart to see the depth of what He was really trying to say… God appreciates it when we Love what HE values…
Will you see them through “His” eyes?
