It’s In The Eyes

Last weekend kicked off one of my favorite times of the year.  Football season.  To be specific, college football at my daughter’s college.  My husband and I are season ticket holders and every home game we sit in the stands cheering and throwing purple and yellow streamers every time we score.  The environment is charged, and the school spirit is overwhelming.  It is one of my happy places.  Especially when we win. 

So, it seems like an odd place for God to place a message on my heart.  But I’ve come to learn that God speaks to me on His terms and in His timeframe.  And this week, in the middle of 20,000+ screaming fans, I saw Him in the face of a baby.

You never know who you will be sitting around from week to week.  Not everyone near you is season ticket holders.  This week, a couple with a baby girl sat in front of us.  I’m not great with ages, but I am guessing she was about a year old; she was still in a carrier on her mama’s chest.  This sweet girl was the most well-behaved baby I’ve ever been around.  She laughed and smiled and napped through touchdown after touchdown.  Toward the end of the game, I noticed her just looking at her mama’s face.  She was mesmerized.  Her gaze locked on her mama who was talking with her husband.  In her eyes I saw contentment.  I could literally feel her love for her mama – this woman who was her protector.  This woman who wrapped her in her arms and gave her safety, comfort, and life.  It was so personal I almost felt as if I was intruding.  It was love in its purest form. 

You may be expecting me to talk about the fact that this is how God and Jesus look at us.  And that is true.  It is that pure, give up life for you love with which Jesus looked out from the cross and into the future to save you.  But that’s not what this blog is about.

You see, what Jesus put on my heart is this question.  “How do you look at Me?”

Do you look at Jesus with the pure innocent love of a baby?  Do you take time to gaze into His eyes?  Are you still in awe of your protector?  Your Savior?  Is Jesus still your greatest love?

As children grow up, they tend to look upon us differently.  As permission givers.  Disciplinarians.  Providers of things and opportunities.  They come to us for help.  They come to us for comfort.  They come to us for the newest electronics or money for gas.  But they don’t typically just sit and gaze into our eyes, fixate on our face, and drink in the love we have for them.  As they become more independent, they need us less and they need us differently.  And that is the natural progression of life.

But when did I begin to think that that is also the natural progression of my relationship with Jesus?  When did I begin believing that the older I get, the more mature I am in my faith that I don’t need Him as much?  I don’t need to take time to just sit in His lap and gaze into the eyes that chose to save me?  Who gives me eternal life?  When did I relegate Jesus to an “as needed” basis? 

Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that you and I could say, “I’ll take it from here.”  Or “I’m good right now.”  Or even worse, “I’ll get back to you later when it’s convenient for me.  I have social media to check.”

No.  Not even close.  Friends, we serve a savior who wants to be in relationship with us.  He isn’t expendable.  He isn’t unnecessary except when we want something.  It wrecks me to think that there are times in my life when I am too busy to just sit and be with my Lord and savior.  And it should wreck you.  It should wreck all of us.  Because when we make the choice (yes, it is a choice) to put Jesus on hold, we minimize the sacrifice on the cross.  We minimize the suffering.  We minimize the depth and breadth of love that led Jesus to lay down His life for you.  He doesn’t ask much from us.  He wants our love.  He wants our relationship.  He wants to be first in our lives.  Every moment.  Every day.  Every situation.  Every circumstance. 

In Hebrews 12:1-3, we are reminded where our focus belongs:  “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

The phrase “let us fix our eyes, according to Strong’s 872, means “to look away from (something else) to see distinctly.  To consider attentively.”    

It doesn’t say “a passing glance” or “look upon Jesus when we need something.”  It says to FIX our eyes on Jesus.  To look away from everything else and to consider Him.  Consider means to “think carefully about something.”   It doesn’t infer a quick thought.  It clearly calls us to look upon Jesus with intention.  With the love and gratitude of a child who knows that their very life and breath exists because of His sacrifice.  With the purpose of living a life that starts and ends with Jesus. 

I want to sit with Jesus. I want to close my eyes and imagine falling into the eyes of my Savior.  I want to simply utter his name, Jesus.  Jesus. Jesus.  I want to tell Him I love Him.  Over and over and over.  I want to pour my heart into the Hands that were pierced for me.   I want to look upon the face of my Savior with the innocence and purity of a little girl at a football game.  Surrounded by distractions, her gaze never left her mama’s face.  Let my gaze never leave my Savior’s.

I encourage you this week to make time to just sit with Jesus.  Close your eyes.  Say His beautiful name.  And watch him wreck you with his love.