Lent Day 10: Serving as The Apple of God’s Eye

Psalm 17:8  Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings 9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me, from my mortal enemies who surround me

 “Petr Novák, Wikipedia”- Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=441286

The apple of the eye commonly refers to the pupil, the black hole in the center of the eyeball and the iris that controls it. This black hole is just like the aperture of any optical system (think about a camera), and serves to admit light rays into our eyes to form images on the retina. Controlled by the contractile muscle of the iris, it is narrowed in bright light and widened in darkness. It is also widened when we see something that interests us.

Just like David in the verse above, whenever we encounter this verse or pray it, we tend to be seeking God’s protection given our understanding of how valuable and useful our eyes are.  However, this should be a two-way street and we can also look at this phrase from the point of view of the owner of the eyes. Just as we vitally need our eyes for almost everything, so our all-seeing God vitally needs us as the apple of His eyes to perform the functions of the pupil in every circumstance he puts us in.

This then means that in situations of darkness and emptiness, God needs us as the apple of His eyes to allow His light to pass through us into the dark, empty and hopeless circumstances. God’s light is manifested as His attributes – tender mercies and loving kindness. God does not come down to shine his light on these situations, he actually needs us to do this for Him. Wherever we encounter darkness, hopelessness and sadness, we have the choice of heeding  or ignoring this call.

It is interesting that the other situation in which the pupils are widened is when we encounter objects that interests us. Hmm, what are the objects and situations that interest God? Perhaps we can tell from Philippians 4:8 ‘Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or worthy of praise-think about such things’.

May God help us to remember that our relationship with Him is a two-way street: we daily implore His blessings and protection from the evil one; while  as the apple of His eyes, He daily needs us to emit His light wherever it is needed and to focus on the things that interest Him. Amen.