20/20 Vision

"the discerning heart seeks knowledge"

Proverbs 15:14

I don't know where I learned it, but I'm fascinated with the idea of what our eyes go to first, when faced with an image.  I have a friend with a beautiful oil painting in her home.  It's a large picture, maybe four feet across or so, and it's a picture of a forest.  So there are various shades of green, the brown and black of tree trunks and branches, and some blue where the sky is peeking through the trees.  The color scheme is very cool and restful.  But right in the middle of this forest, is a woman, bending down picking flowers.  She's small, in comparison to the picture.  The figure is maybe an inch high.  But she's wearing red, and that red pops out of the cool blues and greens.  I find myself looking at her when I glance at the painting.

Or faces.  If an image, such as an advertisement, has a face on it, readers will find their eyes drawn to that face, more than other images.  I saw a study where babies were shown cards that had a series of dots on them, and if the dots were arranged like a face, the babies looked for longer than if the dots were randomly arranged.  Advertisers know that the human eye is drawn to faces, which is why they often have an ad with someone holding their product, rather than just the product itself. 

And then the third example ~ my favorite ~ words.  This is an interesting phenomenon, actually, because it's self-contradictory in a way.  But either way you look at it, there's a lesson to be learned. 

So here's the first lesson:  The human eye is drawn to words.  In my friend's painting, if that woman picking flowers was holding a sign, that's where my eyes would go.  If someone is wearing a t-shirt with writing on it, you're going to try to read that writing.  Ever seen one of those internet tests with all the words spelled wrong?  It starts like this:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty 

uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

Most people can read that, despite the fact that the letters are scrambled in each word.  The human eye reads, almost automatically.  If words are there, we are compelled to read them.  So the lesson here is about our innate desire to read.  Which means if you open your Bible, and leave it on the counter or dresser, you'll be drawn to it.  Your eyes, which love to read; and your heart, which draws you to God, want to read His Word.  It's just your busy schedule and your forgetful brain preventing you from doing it as much as you should!  If you open the Bible only on Sundays, you should increase it to every day.  If you read the Bible every day, you should increase it to a few times a day. 

But here's the other side:  as much as the eye is drawn to words, it is even more attracted by light, color and movement.  We are very easily distracted.  His Word is our goal, but everything about the world is trying to pull us away from it.  Which is why it's a good idea to have the Bible open.  We need every reminder we can to give it the attention it deserves. 

He's got His eye on you.  What do you have your eye on?

~ "Blessed are those who keep His statutes

    and seek Him with all their heart" ~

Psalm 119:2