“Your eye is the lamp of your body.” (Luke 11:34 ESV)
Layers of mountain ridges shimmered blue in the cool air. My whole body relaxed as I took in the sight. Miles of peace, miles of blue sky, miles of Godcraft. Without thinking, I took a deep breath. This wasn’t a computer screen or text or checkout line. This was a living planet, and seeing it did something to me. My insides lit up and needed more air.
Christ said the eye is the lamp of the body. When the eye is healthy, “your whole body will be full of light” (Matthew 6:22 ESV).
The view of this glory, from nearly a mile high, made me feel “full of light.” But the sensation was more than a feeling—hundreds of millions of light-sensitive cells were bringing this scene into my body. Quite literally, my eyes became a lamp, illuminating me with wonder.
God knows we need wonder. Here on the porch of The Swag, a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I thought about the women I came with. Each of us carries burdens for grown children, beloved sons and daughters whose journeys have taken them far from home, both ours and God’s. Getting up high—off the ground floor of daily life with all of its traffic lights, clocks, laundry rooms, and kitchens—getting up here provided a different point of view. It was a good place to meet God, to see afresh that his creation staggers the imagination.
He’s a meet-Me-on-the-mountain God. He’s an I-can-do-anything God.
Throughout human history, He’s met his people on high places. He brought Noah’s ark to rest on the mountains of Ararat as the floods receded. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Christ’s greatest sermon was delivered on a mountain, and his transfiguration took place on a mountain.
“Let the mountains bring peace to the people,” wrote the author of Psalm 72. Isaiah saw a time of such peace, a day when God would meet his people on the “highest of the mountains.” Where earth and sky meet, God would “swallow up death forever.”
As we wait for that day, let’s hike up the mountains and take in the view. We need places that take our breath away, moments when we say, “Wow. God.” They cause our body lamps to burn brightly, filling us with light.
Lord, we look across the earth and read the story of our lives: deserts when times are dry, storms when there is trouble, islands when we’re alone, valleys when darkness closes in. But there are mountains! Hallelujah; mountains. Help us to meet you where earth and sky come close. Help us to hike to the high places. Thank you for friends who want to travel there.
We admit that our eyes have a powerful influence on our thoughts and emotions, our decisions and attitudes. Remind us to keep looking at you and not the glitter of stuff. Stuff we see while shopping. Stuff online; stuff in magazines. Stuff our friends have. Stuff we dream up in our spare time. Stuff we want to do.
Storing up treasures on earth and becoming enslaved to money will make us dark. Keep us from the darkness.
The eye is the lamp of the body, so we pray to see you clearly. When the eyes are healthy, the body is full of light. Lord, you are the Creator of eyes; you make the light. Bring the Light of the World to us, to live in us.
Amen.