There is something about a person's eyes that makes us see through the facade to the real person. I find myself drawn to my husband's eyes. It is there that I see how the day is going, how he is feeling, his scale of happiness.
We talk of a twinkle in the eye and it does seem that happiness creates that twinkle, a brightness that shines and sends forth light in his eyes when he is filled with joy.
He has another look - a sneaky look when he is teasing or joking - I call it his devilish look, the "evil eye". I can see it and know what is coming.
But then his eyes are also the first place to tell me he is in pain. Before the words, I see the pain in his eyes.
It was William Shakespeare who penned the phrase "The eyes are the windows to the soul." Emotional expression around the eye influences how we see and this, in turn show,s others how we think and feel.
David Ludden PhD wrote an article entitled "Your Eyes Really are the Window to Your Soul" (Psychology Today December 31, 2015)
"We can tell a true smile from a face by looking at a person's eyes. The mouth shape of a smile is easy to face-we do it all the time out of politeness. But the eyes are the giveaway. When were truly happy, we not only smile but also crinkle with corners of our eyes in a crow's feet pattern. But when people face a smile they usually forget about their eyes."
The Savior understood how it affects our whole appearance, our countenance. It's as if he was reminding us that some thing cannot be hidden. If we are consumed by darkness our eyes will tell. Just as when we are filled with light, it just shows!
Vincent Cheok, who labels himself a Zen Buddhist and Jesuit Catholic, writes, "The duality here (In Matthew 6) is light versus darkness, good eye versus bad eye, the light in your eye versus the darkness in your eye. The lamp of your body is only as good as the light bulb of its eyes. If your eyes can light up, can be spiritually awakened to see the eternal spirit that you are, then you have the spiritual eyes of spiritual wisdom."
Janice Kapp Perry wrote this song, His Image in Your Countenance, back in 1985. I still sing it. It reminds me that when I fill myself with the light of Christ, it will show - not just in my eyes but in everything I do.
Have you received his image in your countenance?
Does the Life of Christ shine in your eyes?
"The soul, fortunately, has an interpreter - often an unconscious but still a faithful interpreter - in the eye."
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes - never!
Mikhail Bulgakov
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