In the eyes of strangers

Years ago I had a serious bicycle accident. I remember a squirrel and then nothing until I'm looking at this person I don't know repeating back to me things she claims I told her. There were others on the trail I didn't know too. Somehow I think I realized I was hurt and when I started to look around this lady just starts yelling at me saying "Keep looking at me, look at my eyes, don't look at your arm!". I wondered if my arm had been torn off my body and I had no idea why she was saying this but she said it with such conviction I decided it was best to listen.

Then I looked at the other strangers and started to recognize the look of concern and fear in their eyes. These were people I didn't know but for some reason there are certain looks humans have that there is no mistaking the look, even when you don't know the person. But that was a long time ago and a memory that was fading. Well, until this past Monday.

I found myself once again at the mercy of strangers. I had taken a bad fall going up some cement stairs and my face hit the step as I went down. I knew immediately it was bad and just rolled over on my back pressing my hand hard on my mouth and face. I felt the warmth of the blood and wondered if there were any teeth left in my mouth. This man, a stranger who saw me fall, ran up to me to see if I needed help. I did, but couldn't talk. I remembered the lady on the trail from years ago and decided to keep my eyes focused on his. The eyes of this stranger was all I had between panic and passing out.

There in his eyes I saw that look of concern, fear and something else that I didn't recognize at first. I began to wonder how bad it was. Then this woman came up and bent down close to me. Her eyes showed no fear, just concern and what seemed like love but how could that be? She doesn't know me, I don't know her. But I saw no fear in her eyes, she said "it's bad, but you're going to be okay". Her words matched the look in her eyes and all my doubt faded, I knew it was okay to believe what she was telling me because in her eyes I could see truth.

As I've been recuperating I've thought a lot about these strangers and the things I learned about them just by looking into their eyes. Things you can't learn by looking at someones ear or elbow. No, the eyes are windows that communicate great things. I don't even know their names but I will never forget their eyes. So I got curious and did a word search in the Bible and found there are 509 verses that have the word "eyes" in them. God must think they are important. Many verses indicating we should "turn our eyes toward God" and "lifting up our eyes to the Lord". So many verses that it would give someone a lot of material to write a book about or a Bible study on.

Then I came across this verse "But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love" - Psalm 33:18

Imagine that for a moment. God has His eyes on you, all the time. He watches over me and you. This past Monday, when I fell, it was at a Christian event and I learned that if you ever are going to have a bad accident, a good place to have one is where there are a lot of Christians. These strangers with love and concern their eyes, stopped to take care of a stranger. Others who were not able to directly help me stopped and prayed for me. I was touched and had great peace when it seemed I should have been crying and hysterical. I believe God was there and the love I saw in the eyes of these strangers was there because of their love for God. I am most grateful!