There’s a children’s chorus which says:
O be careful little eyes what you see
O be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above
Is looking down in love
So, be careful little eyes what you see
It’s important what we spend our time looking at. Seeing is one of the most prominent of the senses in terms of what influences what we think about.
What we see shapes our thoughts. We think about what we have seen. We replay the events of the day, we think about what we want, we imagine and dream.
We can use recall to think back to an event, like flicking through a photo album, we remember the images in our minds.
What did you see this morning?
- Did you look at the morning sky?
- Did you see the plants, trees and birds?
- Did you see your breakfast – the food you ate this morning?
- Did you see your mum and dad – your family?
- Did you see your friends?
- Did you see the church building?
- Have you seen the Bible you have this morning?
We can think about all these things we’ve looked at this morning, and what conclusion really is the one we should come to?
God has given me all these good things. Provided for my needs. Created such a beautiful world. God must be good. God is good.
The Psalm says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”
We see the good things that God gives, and when we think about them, let’s think about what a good God we have.
Unfortunately, because of sin, we can also see many bad things that we shouldn’t see. We can see things and think about them in an unhelpful way.
- We can see the person we’ve been thinking about that we don’t like.
- Maybe we are thinking about a fight we saw.
- Maybe we saw something scary.
- Maybe we think about something that we worry about seeing again.
Some things we only see once, but they play in our minds over and over.
The Psalmist also warns us to not look at sinful things.
Why? Because what we see is often what we think about. What we see can influence us. We see other people, we watch their behaviour, we take it in.
Psalm 101 tells us to not look at sinful things. V3 says “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes”, it is talking about people who don’t love God, particularly people who lie and deceive. Instead, it says that he wants to look at the faithful of the land. The people who follow God. Those are the people that are an example to follow and think about.
Who is the only one who has lived a perfect life?
Jesus.
We should think about Jesus. He is our example – the way, the truth and the life.
If we are to look to Jesus. If we are to think about Jesus, who we can’t physically see, how do we know what he is like? Or what he has done so perfectly?
Well, we don’t just have one sense, do we. The Bible tells us to walk by faith and not by sight. So maybe another sense is really important when it comes to learning and knowing about who Jesus is, and how he has lived and what he has done for us.
That’s the subject of our next talk – hearing.
Let’s use our eyes to look at the good gifts that God has given and be reminded how good God is.