Eye see the Light

Eye love peoples' eyes. I mean, I love peoples' eyes. For one thing, eyes look really cool—this glossy, smooth ball of color and movement set in all of our faces—how is one expected not to stare at them!? But more than that, eyes have such depth. I have always loved looking people in the eyes—it helps me listen to them. Eyes can speak a lot of words if you listen. I remember reading Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte) in high school—I don't remember very much about the book but I remember this: “The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter-often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter-in the eye.” I have appreciated this quote and understood what it meant to an extent, but my time in South Asia has brought a whole new level of eye appreciation. I remember telling people in my first couple of weeks here that I could see the darkness and lostness in people's eyes. And it's true. I would look in the begger woman's eyes and find something missing—something that I had always just expected to see in eyes when I looked in them. At first I identified this as a lost soul. But as my time here increases and the longer I am unable to fully understand the words those around me are speaking, the more I rely on listening to their eyes. As I have listened this is what I heard: Pain. Sadness. Hardship. Poverty. Hopelessness. Never have I been so fully exposed to such unyielding destitution. No one is immune to it. All around me there is deprivation. Even if you live in a mansion here, you still have to walk outside in the sewage and trash and breath in the disease ridden air. No body is immune and there is no end in sight. There is no answer. And everybody knows and it feels it, all the way to their souls they feel it. That is what their eyes scream—hopelessness. The hopelessness has a tendency to overwhelm, a soul crushing overwhelmth that is difficult to describe and impossible to overcome.

Today as I sat in my friend's house in the slum and I listened to her story of the day I had that all too familiar overwhelmth over taking me. It's not fair, this life, I thought. How can one be expected to bear it? But as I sat there and listened, I looked in her eyes. They were full and vibrant. Yes, there was a sadness laced in there, but her eyes were whole. My friend is a follower. And she is not hopeless. She has found the answer and she has already overcome. She may not be immune to the unyielding destitution all around her, but she is immune to it overtaking her soul. Because her soul is overtaken by Something else. And it shines straight from her soul thru her eyes, out to everyone around her-peace. Joy. Hope.There is Light in this darkness and it is eye wonder. A wonder.

“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