The Eyes You Look Into
- Bobby Lemley
- Nov 10
- 2 min read
Samuel taught me an incredibly valuable lesson about prayer when he was around 5 or 6 years old.
One day, we were in our living room on a sunny day. The windows were open, and the sun was beaming through the blinds. I was sitting on our couch watching TV, and the sun was shining on my face from the windows across the room.
Sam was playing, laughing, and building. He was in a frenzy with his toys. He was creating and demolishing, just to begin the process all over again. In one of these cycles of play, one of his toys found its way to my feet, and he quickly bounced over to where I was to grab his block and begin his build again.
This time, instead of going back to his build, he caught a reflection shining from my eye. He looked at me very intently. He swayed back and forth in front of me, causing me to question what he was doing. As I brought my attention to him, he got closer to me. Not knowing what he was looking at, I turned my head away, just trying to figure out what he was seeing.
My movement didn’t deter him at all. Instead of going back to playing, he grabbed my face and said something I couldn’t shake. While clutching my face and nose to nose with me, he said, “Dad, hold still so I can see myself.”
That moment wasn’t unusual, except on this day I was pierced with a thought that would change my perspective in prayer.
Much of my perspective in prayer was about my eye beholding the beauty of Jesus—which is absolutely necessary! Scripture is very clear that if our eye be single, then the body will be full of light. There is no question that our eye gate is a key to our becoming.
But what if it goes one step further?
Here is the thought that pierced me: What if it isn’t about the eye I look with as much as it is the eye I look INTO?
There are times that I make prayer about my attention to discipline and not about being fascinated by His beauty.
What Samuel taught me that day is this: if I want to see myself, I have to look into the Father’s eyes. I need to see myself as He sees me, not as I see myself. So many times, our aim is not face to face with the Father; it’s just wanting an answer to our prayer list. What if the true answer to our needs is the mutual exchange of our fascinated eyes?
The eye you look with is important—but not nearly as important as the One you look into! Once you catch a glimpse of how He sees you, you begin to interpret your world through His eyes and not your opinion.
There is grace to look.
Keep looking at Him until you see you in His eyes!
