The Heart-Eye Connection
Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 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, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6: 21-23)
The Greek word for eyes is opthalmos, which literally and figuratively means “vision.” So when Jesus speaks of the importance of healthy eyes, he is referring to having the right vision. Here, Jesus puts forward the idea that our values (our treasures) affect how we see life.
What we value in our hearts will influence our vision. (Healthy Heart)
Likewise, our vision will also influence our values. (Healthy Eyes)
In last week's blog, I explained why our hearts need to be calibrated to the right standards of values. Because as Jesus said, what our hearts treasure will determine whether we will see “light” or “darkness.”
The Psalmist further affirms this truth saying, “My son give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.” (Psalm 23:26) Truly, what is in our heart is connected to what we see. “Healthy eyes” provide us with a clear vision.
The Visible— Now Invisible!
A story that captures this truth was when I gave my wife, Marie, a shih tzu 4 years ago. For a long time, my dog-loving wife had to live without one because I never liked dogs. They smell, bark, shed and poop so having one just did not make sense. Then as we were about to enter the “realm of empty nesters” after more than 25 years of marriage, I decided to get her one.
The funny thing was that I ended up falling in love with the furry little guy! Apart from having the name Vito which reminds me of the lead character in one of my all-time favorite movies “The Godfather”, our dog was gentle, kind and very easy to train. Most of all, he was lovable and clean!
Vito made his way into my heart; so much so that every night just before I slept, I would pick him up and lay him in-between Marie and me. Unbelievable! The old Joey would have never done that!
Then it hit me. I had begun to see things in a NEW way: that pet store in Dubai that I have passed for many years, the pet resort just outside of Sydney, the pet hotel in Yokohama, dog vitamins, toothpaste, cushions, and even pet schools! These were people, places and things that have been there all along, yet remained invisible because they had no value in my heart.
The Invisible—Now Visible!
When the values of my heart changed, what was invisible became visible. All of a sudden, the furry creature named Vito became valuable to me.
Think about those things that are so visible yet so invisible to us because we don’t give them the right value they deserve:
Sunrises, sunsets and all of creation declaring the glory and wonders of God;
Priceless moments with our spouse and children;
Opportune times with our teenagers, which we label as “interruptions”;
Your two-year-old handing you a book to read to him;
Healthy life choices to give you more energy and fun;
Seemingly small opportunities to save and invest;
Little breaks in our day to relax and enjoy life’s simple pleasures;
Our grandparents’ words of wisdom that increase our knowledge and understanding of the world;
Our Bible gathers dust, while we religiously check our Instagram daily.
Again, we know that filling our ‘Boxcars’ with valuable things will reap positive and significant results for our future but we still often fall for the wrong things. Why do we keep doing this? And if our hearts determine our values and those values affect the way we see and approach life, what should we value?
Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out the personal application below.
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