Cathy joined the Facebook “52 Week Photo Challenge” group this year. Since we aim to hike at least once or twice a week this year, Cathy decided to combine the weekly photo challenge with our hike. Here is the list of challenges for each week.
You see that this week’s challenge is titled “Ground Level.” So, yesterday Cathy got down on the ground and took this picture on our hike.
We have walked by this moss at the root of the tree dozens of times before, but we had never seen how beautiful it was against the background of tree and sky at ground level. Cathy took this pictures at the very beginning of our hike! She also took these pictures of fungi we have walked by many times.
One of our goals this year is to slow down and look for the beauty that is everywhere around us. Unfortunately, not everything we look at is so beautiful. Another report on children’s media viewing came out recently. Research shows a high percentage of children are seeing increasing amounts of pornographic, violent, and anxiety producing images. These images impact children’s brains, often in quite detrimental ways. Though children are more susceptible, what is true for them is true for us as well.
This year our church is taking up a 52- week challenge of our own. We are reading through the New Testament together this year. Whether you are part of our church or not, I invite you to take the challenge too. There are only 5 chapters a week to read, and you can do it at your own pace. While many people in our church have read the New Testament, the challenge is to read a short section each day with new eyes. Here is a link to check out Cathy's first post with links to the challenge and guidelines: Bible reading challenge.
This week our reading included the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. I’ve read this portion of the Bible dozens of times, but I had an epiphany this week. Right in the middle of Jesus preaching on storing up treasures in heaven instead of earth, and serving God, not money, we get these two verses:
“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 6:22-23 (ESV)
These verses always seemed to interrupt the flow of Jesus’ sermon. Jesus is talking about possessions and money. What’s with the eye comment? I got eye meant more than eyeball, but it didn’t hit me until this time how important the way we see everything is to Jesus. How we look at things matters. It matters a lot! As important as what we look at is, the “eye” we see it with matters even more. What we see impacts our brain, yes, but how we see it impacts our lives. How we see things impacts others’ lives as well. Healthy eyes here means generous and pure eyes. In Biblical times “eye” could mean heart. How we “see” our money and material goods makes a difference. How we see ourselves and others makes a difference. What we watch and the eye we use to see it makes a difference.
How are your eyes doing this year? Are they “good”? Are they generous? Pure? Are they “dark”? What we look at this year, and even more importantly, the “eye” we use to see things will makes all the difference in how the year goes.
I encourage you to see things anew this year! I hope we all might see even the everyday things in 2023 with healthy eyes.
How are your eyes doing this year? Are they “good”? Are they generous? Pure? Are they “dark”? What we look at this year, and even more importantly, the “eye” we use to see things will makes all the difference in how the year goes.
I encourage you to see things anew this year! I hope we all might see even the everyday things in 2023 with healthy eyes.
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