Les & Diana Morris

For years now, we have sung the song Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord as a part of our worship and also as a prayer. It’s just one of those songs that so often helps us express the deep things our hearts want to communicate in His presence.  Sometimes we sing the song fast, sometimes in a slow and contemplative way.  We sing it in Spanish as well (Abre mis ojos o Cristo).

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see You

To see You high and lifted up
Shinin’ in the light of Your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy

But what exactly are we looking for? What exactly is our prayer?  This weekend, 2 things happened that brought this song to my mind.  They both show different perspectives and the song fits for both.

Saturday, as we went to the feria, we saw a man that we often see. When you pull in to park there’s a group of alcoholics that

Man at the Feriá

determine where you park and they meet you as you come back to the car and help carry your fresh veggies and fruit.  For this, you tip them. And they remember you week to week. If you tip well, they let you park closer to this farmers’ market.  But on the opposite side of the street, there is always an alcoholic that is rarely standing, and is often passed out or at least asleep on the sidewalk. They’re a reliable fixture to the feria in Pavas.  I rarely take pictures of scenes like this. I feel like it is an invasion of their privacy.  But there was a brief moment when no one was there and I grabbed a really quick shot unobtrusively with my iPhone.  Sometimes the only way to say something is to show  it.

Talking to Rodney later, he called this man “my friend.” It turns out that he buys him some food every week… which of course reminds me of the verses in Matthew 25: 34-36

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.  For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

My natural eyes don’t see things this way.  I have to intentionally pray that God will open the eyes of my heart to see the way He sees and live the way His heart yearns for me to live.

Bus ride to baptism

Then Sunday, Viña Anonos had a celebration day – 12 people were baptized!  What an incredible blessing. Les and I had the privilege of participating in the baptism. It was a time of great rejoicing for everyone. A big bus was rented to take people from the church to a nearby pool … although it turned out that no one on the bus was sure how to get there, including the bus driver – only in Costa Rica!  But we did find our way.

There’s an old song by Phil Keaggy called Rejoice.  Part of the lyrics are:

All true saints of Jesus Christ
Rejoice when there’s a soul saved.
All the angels in Heaven above
Rejoice when there’s a soul saved.

This too requires the eyes of our hearts to be open. So we worship, we see Him and He permits us to view at least a little piece of life from His perspective. With our hearts’ eyes open, we are able to see baptism the way He sees it – making the decision (or as it is worded in Spanish “taking” the decision) to identify the rest of our lives with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Summing up having the eyes of our heart open. Seeing, caring and learning love with His eyes is a quote from One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp ~

… the Hebrew word used throughout Scripture to describe God’s glory, kabod, is derived from the root word meaning ‘heaviness.’  Dusk and all the arching dome and the field and the great bellied moon, it all heaves, heavy with the glory.  I heave to breathe: The whole earth is full of His glory. Sky, land, and sea, heavy and saturated with God-why do I always forget?

Truly, we so easily forget His glory; we so easily lose His perspective and trade it for our oh so human perspective. The only way we can see life from God’s perspective, with the eyes of His heart, is to have Him open our eyes. Then, and only then can we truly see.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ6h5RuXz7o[/youtube]