They tell me dry eyes are a problem. A real problem. Evidently, doctors have cures for those who suffer from dry eyes. Actually, most of us suffer from dry eyes from time to time. If not from dry eyes, then from a need for “open eyes.”
I (Linda) had a chance to watch wide eyes this week. In an ESL class at the local library, as a gal listened to an introduction of Good Friday and Easter, of Jesus’ betrayal by a friend, her eyes were wide. She’d never before heard of the Jewish leaders who paid money for this to happen, and tears formed in her eyes.
How can we take this all for granted? Do we see this twisted plot, the scheming tribunal, His whipped back and thorns shoved hard? Where are our tears? Our wide eyes?
Keith Green sings so well,
My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard,
My prayers are cold.
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me.
Oh what can be done for an old heart like mine?
Soften it up with oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew in the wine of Your blood.
My dear friends, we need to enter this Holy Week with wonder. We need to ask for passion to return. We’ve got a dry eye problem.
My new friend at the library, with her head bowed and covered, graciously spoke of her religious leader. Jesus also addresses another eye problem: “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” How will we use the opportunities around us this Easter? Many are waiting to hear the story for the first time. (By the way, you don’t need an ESL degree to be library ESL volunteer; you just need to speak English.)
Want to have your eyes opened again? Refresh yourself with this reading plan that walks you through the events of Holy Week. Before you begin, echo the prayer of two blind men who met Jesus: “Lord, we want our eyes to be opened. “ (Matthew 20:33)
As you move into Holy Week, how are your eyes? There is a cure for dry eyes.
Rick and Linda Reed 