Close Your Eyes

“The eyes of the Lord roam over the whole earth, to encourage those who are devoted to him wholeheartedly.” 2 Chronicles 16: 9a

A couple years ago I came home from a long day at work and as I opened the front door, my two oldest sons were standing in the doorway blocking my entrance. At the time they were 8 and 6 and they stood there with short black sticks in their hands and they were wearing top hats made out of black construction paper, black pants and shirts and black capes.  As I stopped in my tracks my oldest son said (in a very deep, dramatic voice), “Good evening, Father. Tonight we have a magic show for you, please sit down.”

So I made my way over to the couch in the living room and sat down. They had arranged several boxes in front of the couch and stood behind them. My oldest son again looked at me, held up a stuffed animal and in the same voice said, “Father, I am going to make this rabbit disappear. Would you like to see me make this rabbit disappear?” And I responded enthusiastically, “Heck yeah I’d like to see you make it disappear!” Then he looked at me very seriously and said, “Close your eyes.” 

So I closed my eyes and I could hear him opening a box in front of him and I could hear him shoving the rabbit in and closing the box and then he said loudly, “Abracadabra!” and then told me I could open my eyes. When I opened my eyes, both my sons put their hands in the air and shouted “Ta da!” And being a good Dad I clapped long and energetically, while chuckling on the inside. Then he made his brother disappear in the same fashion, with the same command to “close your eyes”.

While this is a cute story about boys and their imaginations, it is also an illustration of what we do to God sometimes. I think at times you and I tell God to “close His eyes” to things in our lives or our hearts. Perhaps we have a hurt that we have pushed way down deep in our hearts and we will allow God to see everything in our lives but that pain, because we know that if we let Him see it, then we’ll have to deal with it. Or maybe we don’t mind God seeing our lives most of the time, but when we hang out with certain friends we want Him to close His eyes because maybe with those friends we use language we shouldn’t, or we watch movies we shouldn’t or because we do things with them we shouldn’t. Perhaps when we go on the Internet we tell God to close His eyes because we are ashamed of the sites we visit. The reality is that even though God knows exactly what is going on in our lives, He will respect us, like a good Father, and He will close His eyes if we tell Him to, just like I closed my eyes for my sons when they asked me.

All of us can wear masks and fool others about what we are really feeling or thinking. We can fool our families, our teachers, our co-workers, our friends. We can even fool ourselves. But we can’t fool God. So why do we spend so much time trying to do it anyway?  God will not force Himself on us. But He continually knocks on the door to our hearts asking to be invited in. It is up to us to open the door and tell Him He can open His eyes and see every part of our hearts: the good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s try to open our hearts fully to Jesus today and be completely honest with Him. Until we can do this, our relationship with Him will always be less than what it could be.

Dear Jesus, I give You permission to open Your eyes to every part of my heart today. Come into my heart and make Your dwelling there. And then help me to see as You see. Amen.