Keep your eye on God
January 1, 2012
Be Like the Lizard:
Keep an Eye on God
One of the things I love about being a pastor is the opportunity to minister to children. One of the great joys about children and youth is the many ways they minister to us. Children have a way of helping us think outside the box. Personally, I think it is the creative God within each child that enables children to minister to us this way. I think the God within each child thinks outside the box, don’t you? Think about it. God surprises us with the extraordinary, with the unexpected, with the unexplainable. We call this mystery.
Think for example about the lizard. Who can explain a God who creates such a creature? I wonder about things like this. Recently I wondered what it would be like to be one of those little lizards, chameleons, that dart across my path every morning when I go out to the curb to bring in the morning paper. Oh, I don’t mean that I gave any serious or lengthy thought to the physical aspects of being a lizard. Though sometimes we humans do dart around here and there, racing through our days, like the devil was behind us! In Samuel Hahn’s Learning from the Lizard, I learned something about this creature that intrigued me.
Lizards have a very fascinating trait. Their eyes move independently of one another! With one eye on where they are going and one eye on an enemy, they are able to scoot out of danger in the nick of time. Even if that danger is no more than a bedroom slipper making its way to the newspaper. What an awesome and creative God we have! Lizards with eyes that move independently!
As I wondered about God’s wisdom in creating the lizard this way, I began to wonder also about how God has created the human spirit with just such a fascinating trait. I began to value the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that allows us to keep one eye on God while we keep another eye on everything else around us, especially during these days filled with so much activity.
When we spend time in thanksgiving and praise, when we spend time daily in prayer and Bible study, when we gather together as the worshipping Body of Christ, when we keep our spiritual eyes on God, we are better able to move through our day escaping the many enemies that threaten to rob us of the joy and power of life lived in the spirit. Psalm 141 is a wonderful prayer for preservation from just such things. Verse eight: My eyes are turned toward, you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless, is a prayer for “lizard eyes,” eyes that look to God while maneuvering through days filled with activity, distractions, and risks. God, give us grace to keep an eye on you.
