“One, two, three, eyes on me!” I would sing to my Grade One class. I needed to get their attention at the beginning of the lesson to give them instructions and to start teaching them. If they were noisy or if they had wandered from the task assigned to them, they needed to be brought back to their work. Their focus was restored when the children sang back, “One, two, eyes on you!” Their faces were turned toward me in expectation, ready to listen.
“Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” (Hebrews 12:1b-2a NLT)
Focus is so important. I found this out when I struggled to use my husband Terry’s old pair of hand-me-down binoculars. I hadn’t always been enthusiastic about bird watching, so for a long time, those heavy, old-fashioned binoculars seemed to work for me. They had their limitations, though. Even after I had spent precious seconds trying to focus, the image that I had of the bird in view was still not as sharp as the image in Terry’s binoculars. “Wow! So that’s what it looks like!” I exclaimed when I looked through his binoculars at the bird that we had just sighted.
“The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers.” (1 Peter 3:12a NLT)
“You see me when I travel, and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.” (Psalm 139:3,15 NLT)
The Lord Jesus always has His eyes on us. Because we are human, however, our focus can waver so easily. When we lose our focus on Him, we run into trouble, and we can be so easily overwhelmed by ordinary happenings.
Focusing on Him is something that we have to initiate, just like focussing a pair of binoculars. My daily quiet time helps me to gather up my scattered thoughts. As I bring my thoughts to the Lord, their tenacious hold on me fades away as I centre on Him. Morning worship at church does the same: it prepares our hearts to focus on the presence of God, and prepares our hearts to hear from Him.
As the old chorus reads:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen H. Lemmel
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Let’s do it!
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that Your eyes are always on us, watching over our lives. Forgive us when we take our eyes off You, and help us to keep our eyes on You, knowing that our difficulties and challenges dissipate in the light of Your presence. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Copyright © 2022, by Alice Burnett <terrencera.burnett@gmail.com>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Reprinted from PresbyCan with author’s permission