WINDOWS TO THE SOUL

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Our eyes can be very revealing. We show the full range of our emotions and intentions with our peepers. Anger, love, sensitivity, deception, hate, envy all can be discerned by looking into the eyes of an individual. There’s a saying, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” There is basis for such a statement in God’s Word. Scripture is full of references on how the eyes relate to our spiritual condition. God knows that our eyes can reflect the condition of our heart, mind and soul. He also knows they direct our actions which are motivated by our desires. In the single book of Proverbs alone there are numerous verses indicating how our eyes seek what is in our heart and communicate with others what lives within our soul.

 

Proverbs 6:17 and 30:13 tell us that there are seven things the Lord hates and one of them is haughty or arrogant eyes which are empowered by fleshly motives.

 

Proverbs 26:5, 12, 16, 28:11 and 30:12 speak of how we can be deceived by what we see with our eyes when we lean to our own limited sight and perception.

 

Proverbs 6:25 reveals how the eyes of others around us can lead us astray; such tempting eyes can communicate desires that should not be pursued.

 

Proverbs 27:20 states how our eyes are never satisfied in seeking our selfish will for they are driven by our pervasive impure motives.

 

Proverbs 3:7, 4:25, 23:6 instructs us how important it is to keep our eyes focused on the scriptures for proper spiritual living as God’s children.

 

As an optometrist I am aware that the majority of our sensory input comes through our sense of sight. Our vision is known as the dominant sense we use to evaluate and interpret the world around us.

 

I have been blessed many times with events that I have seen with my own eyes. One such memory was a situation during work at my optometry office. An older lady came into my office and while I attempted to repair some eyeglass frames for her she took a seat in my waiting area. On a table nearby were copies of various homilies that I had written and she picked one up to read. Later, when I came over to talk with her about her glasses, she had the most amazing look in her eyes. Her eyes looked as if they had found something of extreme value. They reflected the emotions of a heart that had been exposed to ultimate truth. They communicated to me that God’s Spirit had touched her very soul. She spoke the following words in the most sensitive and inquisitive voice; “Did this come from your church?” I explained that I write Christian homilies each week and try to communicate God’s Word to people. I told her that I could send her copies of them each week if she wished. She quickly began writing down her address for me.

 

I will never forget the look in her eyes and the words she spoke. Her eyes reached out to touch mine and they told me that through my meager attempts to share God’s message, God’s Spirit had touched a human soul. The reason for her response was not in the quality of my writing, but in how the Holy Spirit spoke through it to work in her life. My purpose in writing homilies like the one you are reading now is to strive to communicate God’s truth. While I am not the best of writers by any means, I know that God uses me in numerous ways no matter how limited my abilities. I know that it is not by might, power, talent or skills that people are reached for His Kingdom, but by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). I also know that God uses what appears to be foolish and simple means to put to shame the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 1:27). I felt most privileged to witness this woman responding to the ministry of God’s Spirit. Here in a small town office, through the writings of a child of God, the Ancient One, the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God of the universe had reached out to draw someone to Himself, to His Son through the Holy Spirit.

 

This interaction with this older lady caused me to remember another experience I had many years back in college. Over a period of several months I had been witnessing to some young men on my wing in the dorm building. They were “boozers” as you might say, getting drunk almost every other night and participating in everything associated with a worldly life at that time. One night in a discussion about Jesus, I sensed that one of them was very close to seeking Christ as their Savior. I shared God’s message of hope and salvation and looked into this young man’s eyes. I could see he was a breath away from accepting Christ as his personal Savior. If his eyes could speak they would have said that he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what I had been sharing with him was the absolute truth. His eyes communicated to me the longing he had to have a relationship with the King of Kings. But the words which came out of his mouth betrayed what was displayed in his eyes. His flesh took over and his mouth spoke the words that denied his need. He declined the free gift of salvation that Christ offered him. I was disappointed that he had not pursued the truth that his eyes had recognized as God wishing to touch his life and free him from his sin.

 

I knew that he had made his choice, but I also knew I had planted some seeds of truth that possibly in the future would bring him to faith in God.

 

So here we have the stories of two seekers. One seeker was a middle‑aged woman who found God’s message within the writings of a Christian man. She felt God’s Spirit touch her heart and knew she needed to pursue the Lord Jesus who could fill the void of her life. The other, a young college‑age man, witnessed the truth in spoken words, felt the Holy Spirit tug at his heart, but exchanged a relationship with a loving Savior for the temporary enjoyment of the worldly life. Both of these stories involved people who had eyes that thirsted for God. Their eyes reflected the parched souls thirsting for God’s love and truth. But each chose a different path. One chose to drink from fresh eternal living water, the other from the polluted sinful liquid of this world.

 

Yes, the eyes truly are, “The windows to the soul.” What do you see when you look in the mirror each morning? Do you see a seeker? Do you see someone whose eyes are thirsty for the presence of God? Do you see someone who desires to be intimate with the loving Lord, the Savior, and the King of Kings? Or do you see someone who is avoiding God; someone who needs to do business with the Lord, but is running from Him? Do you see a person who needs to fill his or her parched soul with the fresh cool nourishment of living water that comes only from Jesus Christ?

 

They say, “Seeing is believing.” But this is true in spiritual matters only if you are looking with spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyesight functions when we allow God’s Spirit to speak to us and guide us in His truth. What do your eyes reveal of your soul?

 

2 Corinthians 4:4

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

 

1 Corinthians 2:14

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”