See the Teacher playing with the children
Hear Him baffle doctors of the law
Look at the people gathering to go with Him
Those who see the vision that He saw
This is why a man as holy as He
Had to die alone on Calvary
It was the only way that we could ever see
The heaven in His eyes.
-"Heaven In His Eyes," Rich Mullins
A lot of our ministry this month has been hiking and passing out tracts and talking with people. For me, it’s been the most difficult month for ministry, just because hiking is not my forte. That’s putting it nicely. Truth is, I strongly dislike hiking and I’m not very good at it.
But the scenery is beautiful and the weather has been warm and sunny and I did come on the Race to get out of my comfort zone, so here I am. Hiking through the foothills of the Himalayas and trying my hand at evangelism.
A few days ago, we had a particularly trying hike, up many steep rock steps and loose gravel. When we finally reached the village, I was pretty tired. We stopped to pray for an older gentleman who is a member of Samuel’s church, then headed off to another home where the husband comes to church every Sunday, but his wife hasn’t been coming lately.
As we were speaking with the couple, their neighbor came over, probably drawn by the five Americans chatting with his friends. We asked if he knew about Jesus. He said that he did know of Him, but he wasn’t interested in hearing anything more or talking with us. He wasn’t mean about it; it was just obvious that he was there to be an observer, not a participant in the conversation.
The very first thing I noticed about this neighbor guy was his eyes. They were an incredibly light green, really shocking in a culture full of dark brown eyes. They were beautiful – clear and bright. And warm, too. I couldn’t stop looking at him out of the corner of my eye while we were talking with his neighbors.
And I thought to myself, while everyone else around me was talking, that if he could only see with those incredible eyes the beauty of the creation around him, there in the foothills of the Himalayas and in the mirror when he looks at his own face, he wouldn’t be able to deny the truth of God’s existence and His deep, deep love for him. And what love he would be able to convey through those eyes if he accepted Jesus into his heart and began to see others the way that Jesus does.
As we were leaving, the man we were visiting asked for one of our tracts and sat with his friend to explain it. They were talking about it when we walked away and my prayer is that through the relationship he has already established with his friend and the power of the Holy Spirit, the man with the incredible eyes will come to know God.
I just have this feeling that God gave that man those eyes for a reason, maybe to express His love to other Nepali people in a unique way.
So God, send your Holy Spirit down to his village and into his heart, so that he can know You and love You and see You in everything around him. Grant strength to his friend, the man we visited, to continue to witness to him. Soften his heart and open his eyes, those beautiful eyes, to the glory of Your presence around him.
