Guide You With My Eye

We here in the mski house have a breed of dog called German Shorthair Pointers. They are hunting dogs, and they are, in a word, intense. Rich’s dog Kimo was a great hunter. We have a picture of Kimo and Rich in the field – Rich is intensely focusing his gun on a bird, and Kimo is even more intensely leaning into Rich, focusing on him and looking where Rich is looking. It captures a focus, obedience, and concentration that is really beautiful. He is poised to go and retrieve said bird.

You could be jumping up and down next to the dog, and he wouldn’t notice. You could set off a bomb, and he wouldn’t notice. Everything in his being is concentrating on Rich and helping him hunt the bird.

Kimo is focusing on Rich and being guided by his eye.

Now, where there are dogs, there is poop around you. But Kimo is not focused on that. He is focused on his master.

Last week, God gave me this picture and I put it together with our Psalm from the previous Sunday. The Lord put the reading from that Sunday on my heart - I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. – Psalm 32:8.

Being guided by someone’s eye is different than a person pointing, or shoving, or pushing you in the direction you should go.

It requires drawing near to and focusing on the person so you can see where to go.

It requires obedience.

It requires lifting your eyes from the people around you and poop below you and concentrating above, on the face of God, to see where He is guiding you.

My mother in law recently has had some problems that have landed her in a wheelchair for the time being. We are hopeful that with physical therapy she should regain mobility in a year’s time. Our teenage daughter was heading down to spend a week with her this summer, and a friend suggested that Naomi be told to watch her grandmother’s eyes. Focus on her eyes, and Naomi would know what she needed: if she needed a Kleenex, a drink, or wanted something done in the house.

What God spoke to me was to focus on Him. Seek His face. Watch His eyes. And He will guide us. Not with a loud voice, not with a stern pointing finger, not with a shove, but with His eyes. It requires effort on our part, but He is a gentle leader who will guide us with His eye.

The Psalmist continues, “Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.” – Psalm 32:9

So, what does the Lord wants from us today, November 2007?

To seek His face. To look at Him. Not to focus on the poop below, or the people around, but to look at His face and to be guided by His eye.