open the eyes of our hearts

There is a popular Christian song called “Open the Eyes of My Heart” that many of us sing during worship. The content was inspired by Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he prays that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened . . . “ (Eph 1:18). Though we do not have physical eyes in our heart, we do have a way of seeing spiritually. This allows us to know, understand, and discern things so that we have a right perspective.

One day I was reminded of having the right perspective when the Holy Spirit spoke to me about physical sight. I recalled when my husband Dave and I were engaged. We walked a lot, talking about our ideals for the marriage we would share. I was in nursing school and had a part time job at that time. Sharing the household chores came up, and was agreed upon.

Once we got married the rhythm of our lives picked up. Each minute was full with little time to organize much outside the routine of my school work and house work. One chore that didn’t get much attention was the cleaning of our shower. After several months of trying to play catch-up with the shower I finally brought myself to ask my new husband if he ever noticed that the shower was dirty. “No,” he said. Though he could logically come to the conclusion it would someday need cleaning, for Dave, that day hadn’t come yet.

In my quiet time this rose to the surface as “Why can’t he see the shower is dirty, Lord?” Then, my husband’s bespeckled face appeared in my mind. My attention was drawn to his glasses, and the Lord said, “He can’t see, Helen.” My husband is legally blind without his glasses, and since he doesn’t wear glasses in the shower, he couldn’t see the build-up of grime. Though Dave was technically blind without his glasses, I had been spiritually blind as to why he did not help by scrubbing the shower. God had to “open the eyes of my heart.”

The topic of “seeing” has been an important one in Dave and my conversations over the years. But it is the spiritual seeing that is the prize in our walk with each other, and with Jesus. Though we both wear glasses now (Dave is near-sighted and I am far-sighted) it is the ability to perceive God’s heart and the conditions around us which enable us to remove the grime from our lives. Then we can establish His kingdom in and around us.

When we went to a mortgage broker a few years ago to talk about the terms of purchasing our home, the Lord reminded me to take my reading glasses. I can’t read the fine print without them! Yet knowing what is written, large and small print, is what we make our final decision on concerning the terms of the loan. So, in our Kingdom walk, we need our spiritual glasses on. It is important to “see” the conditions to which we are agreeing as not everything may be as it appears. Just as Dave was not scrubbing the shower because he couldn’t see the dirt, I might not “see” the grime of unforgiveness or offense, because I do not have my spiritual glasses on. This will affect important decisions I make, and relationships as well.

As in marriage, in order for two people to walk as one it is necessary for them to communicate with each other. So in our union with the Lord our conversation brings us the eyes to “see” things as they really are. When the Lord reminded me that my husband needed glasses to see the grime in the shower, then I had the spiritual eyes to see, understand, and discern the situation. Our Lord has the eyes to see things as they really are, and is happy to share when we have a conversation with Him.