Through the Eyes of Jesus

August 7, 2002

            John Storentz poured a chemical into the mix.  All of a sudden, a rainbow of colorful gases sprang up from the mixture and formed a haze around his wife, Leah.

            “Perfect.” He quickly reversed the chemical formula that had taken him exactly a month to create.  A month since his daughter’s birth.  He drained the reversed liquids into a small, glass lens.  He installed the lens back into the left side of a frame and shut it tight. 

            Leah grabbed the tiny purples glasses and attached to it a contraption guaranteed to stay on the nose of a baby.  John squeezed his wife’s shoulders as she held up the finished product of their hard work.

            “Now,” said John, “our little girl won’t ever be bothered by emotions compelling her to comfort others. She will no longer have eyes like that prophet Jesus my mother is always talking about. Everything she sees will be from behind the lenses of an atheist.”

            “I'm so glad this worked, John. I never wanted her to fall for all that Jesus stuff.” Leah hugged her husband tightly and sped up the stairs at the cry of her baby.

October 7, 2015

“Do you have your glasses, Taylor?”

            I sighed in exasperation. “They’re on my face right now, Mom.” Maybe she’s the one who needs glasses.

            “Right, right. Now have a good day at school, honey. Remember you must keep your glasses on at all times.” Mom placed her hands firmly on the steering wheel as I leapt out of our white van. “Of course. Bye.”

            I slammed the car door shut with all my might, trying to get the point across that I was tired of her nagging.  Ever since I can remember, she and Dad have always made it so important that I wear these glasses. I don’t even know if I have bad eyesight.

            I threw the hood of my bright, pink raincoat over my black hair to protect the perfectly-straight locks from the rain.

            All of a sudden, I heard a shout. “Heads up!” I had no time to duck before being knocked to the hard, cement ground by a football probably the size of my head.  My stylish backpack flew off my shoulders and into a puddle of rainwater.  I lay there for a second, my body aching from the fall.

            “Taylor!” Relief flooded my insides and my body relaxed when I heard my best friend’s voice call from all the way across the parking lot.  The owner of the football was long gone and I realized that if we didn’t hurry, we would be late for class.

            Cindy picked me up off the soaked ground and handed me my bag.  I noticed something wrong immediately.  “My glasses! Where are they?” The tall blonde located them and picked them up.  I grimaced when I saw the shape they were in.  “My parents are going to kill me!”

The left lens appeared cracked all the way down the middle with both of the arms hanging by a thread.  I looked up at Cindy to see that her eyebrows were furrowed in worry.  Then, my eyes widened and I gasped out loud.  I could see her perfectly fine.  So why did I even need glasses? 

            Then I saw it.  A blue haze surrounded my best friend along with the words: PARENTS GOING THROUGH DIVORCE.  I shook my head, trying to get rid of strange discoloring.  It blurred for a second, but bounced right back. 

            What is happening? Are the words right? But why wouldn’t Cindy tell me about this? 

            “Are your parents going through a divorce?” Doubt and question filled my voice as if I didn’t believe the strange vision I was seeing. 

            Cindy drew in a sharp breath and her eyes glazed over.  A single tear trickled down her pale cheek and she quickly swiped it away. “How did you know?” She interrogated angrily.

            I stepped back a step. “There are blue gases and words stating your situation hovering around you. It must be because of my glasses; it certainly wasn’t there before.”

            “What are you talking about?” Cindy looked up as if searching for anything matching my description.

            I grinned slightly and the features on my face lifted. “Maybe I have some kind of super power that allows me to see things about people that not many can see. Why wouldn’t you tell me about your parents?”

            Cindy’s shoulders drooped and her electric, blue eyes looked up at me pleading not to tell her secret. “I didn’t want anyone to know. It’s too embarrassing how much they fight over the silliest things.”

            I reached out and hugged her around the neck, her tall frame leaning against my short one for support. “I’m so sorry. I’ll always be here to help you; you can tell me anything.”

            “Thanks, Tay.” Cindy straightened up her shoulders and brushed off her black skirt.  “But we’d better hurry. I think we’re already late.”

            I laughed and we scurried across the yard to the small school building.  Inside the halls, a few people still mulled around and each one had a colored haze around them.  Some even possessed two colors.  When I stopped in the middle of the hall to read everything, Cindy grabbed me by the hand, practically dragging me the rest of the way to our lockers. 

            She kicked hers open with a strong, skillful kick of her foot while I turned the my dial.  We grabbed our history books. “All these people. They all have something terrible going on in their lives. I never knew this. I wish I could help everyone. Oh, it’s almost overwhelming!”

            Cindy stopped short and I almost bumped into her back. “So this is really a thing? It wasn’t just for me?”

            “No! All these kids have something. It explains the way some of them act. My life is almost perfect next to theirs.”

            In history class, my low grade forced me to ignore the colorful classroom.  But, Mrs. Locknet’s yellow grew brighter and bigger by the minute.  I thought it would consume the room.  Her yellow must mean something good because of her happy attitude today. Where are those words?  

            At the end of class, the words came.  FINALLY PREGNANT.  Her joy infiltrated my soul and my eyes were smiling like hers by the time the bell rang.

            I rushed up to her, not thinking clearly.  “Mrs. Locknet, I’m so happy for you! When is the baby due?”

            Mrs. Locknet returned my smile with the same deer-in-the-headlights look Cindy had given me when I discovered her secret. “How’d you know about that? Only my husband knows!”

            I turned around to look at Cindy who waited for me at the door of the classroom.  She shrugged. “It was just a lucky guess. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

            Mrs. Locknet’s smile returned and relief flooded me when I saw it again. “Good guess, young lady. Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome.” I hurried out, my feet thudding on the tile ground.

 Cindy laughed. “You need to be more careful.”

I cleared my throat. “I know.”

But, being “careful” turned out to be a challenge.  I often found myself biting my tongue in frustration.  Some people I wanted to comfort and some I wanted to congratulate like Mrs. Locknet.  Some people’s depression and sadness were so great, I could barely keep the tears from flowing.

When I would usually be more focused on whether or not my hair looked satisfactory, I was more intent on watching people.  I saw them all as lost children searching for something…something.  Something I couldn’t grasp myself.

            When the bus dropped me off at my house, I saw a car in the driveway.  Weird.  Then it hit me and a smile broke out on my face.

            An older lady looked up from her baking when I rushed into the house, my legs moving fast and my arms opened to embrace the woman I only saw once a year. “Grandma!” I took a deep breath through my nose to smell her lilac perfume.

            “Taylor! It’s so good to see you.” Grandma looked at me, her brown eyes skipping across my face in a strange way.

            “I know! But why are you here?” A pearly white encompassed the kind woman.  It was very pretty on her.

            “Your parents don’t know I’m here,” she said mischievously. “I’m here for you and I plan on leaving before they get back from work.

            By this point I was very confused. “What do you mean?”

She clapped her hands and led me over to a chair. “I just knew you would have broken your glasses today! That’s why I hurried over here as fast as I could. Have you seen odd things today?”

I put my hand up as if to stop her. “Yes... How did you know?”

The excited lady sat in a chair opposite me. “I was the only one your parents told when you were born. You were born with this special gift that allows you to see through the eyes of the Messiah. You can see what no one else can, Taylor.”

I gulped.  Isn’t the “Messiah” the one subject I’m not allowed to discuss? “Grandma, you must be mistaken. This has nothing to do with your ‘Messiah.’”

Grandma leaned across the gap between us and took my hands in hers. “Oh, but it has everything to do with Him. Now tell me everything.”

So I poured out to her the events of the day. “I’m pretty sure all the colors mean something. You’re pearly white. I don’t really know what that is yet.”

Grandma leaned slowly back in her chair. “It’s really special that you get to see like this, Taylor. God gave you this gift so you could be like His Son. You know how to help people like no one else can.”

I nodded, but I remained very uncertain about the whole Jesus thing.  I had a million questions running through my mind and could hardly concentrate on Grandma.  My eyes kept wandering to each end of the room trying to find any clues that would help me.

Then, I heard a car door slam. The time had gotten away from us and there was no way to hide our surprise visitor.  Mom and Dad had surely already seen her car in the driveway.

My parents stormed inside, both of them covered so much in red that I could barely see their faces.  I could hardly breathe.  What would they do to Grandma?

“Put your glasses on right now, young lady.” My dad yanked them out of my backpack.  I stuck the collapsing frames on my face.  But, nothing changed.  I could still see the colors around my family members. 

“They’re not working.” My mom pulled them off my face, and she and dad bent over them uttering a bunch of sciency-sounding words that I didn’t understand. 

“Broken.” My father groaned and leaned against our kitchen counter with an expression of defeat washing over his body.  My mom pursed her lips and looked at me, disappointed. 

“No point in trying to fix them. She’ll never forget what she saw now,” my grandma piped up from where she was still sitting calmly on the chair. 

“We’ll make her forget,” my dad growled and squeezed my arm so tight that he left marks. 

I bit the inside of my cheek.  I can’t do this anymore. “No!” I said aloud and all heads turned to me. “I’ve seen things. I’ve seen people’s heartaches and also their joy. I’ve not only seen it but I’ve felt it as well! I never realized how self-absorbed I was not to notice what was going on in the lives of those closest to me. I never even bothered to ask them.”

My aging grandmother smiled over at me, the understanding look in her eyes almost knocking me over. My parents exchanged glances, but while my dad was still mad, my mom’s eyes watered, and she clung to the counter until her knuckles were white.

“You can never take this away from me. No matter what experiments you try, I will always have this kind of power inside me.”

Grandma walked over to me. “That power, Taylor, is called Jesus.”

My father yelled and lifted his finger.  My mom screamed shouts of warning at me and I ducked underneath a table.  The man before us grew taller and taller at each shout until he was no longer my father, but a hideous creature I cannot explain.  The only color around him was black.

            I screamed as the darkness seeped through my mom’s eyes.  She rose to join him.  Together, they both worked on my grandmother.  She was a harder job, but then she stood up to assist them.

            Then, the blackness turned to red for anger and then to blue which I knew signified sadness.  Wait…sadness?  The hideous creature that my father had turned into was depressed.  A deep blue that made me burst into tears.  I could feel the hurt inside his soul.

            I couldn’t help it.  A strong force compelled me to get up and wrap my arms around the creature.  I felt him shrink beneath my grasp.  He melted into the ground and all that was left was a puddle of tears.

*****

            Are you self-absorbed like Taylor in this story?  Maybe you aren’t obsessed with your clothes or hair like her.  But do you devote your time to getting perfect grades in school?  Or being the best player in your sport?  These things are not necessarily bad, but they can be bad if you put them before others and God.

            Instead of worrying about yourself 24/7, look around you.  Really look.  Everyone around you is going through something.  While you may not be able to deliberately be able to see through Jesus’s eyes, you can always be compassionate and patient with others.  Because you never know what is happening in their lives.

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours,

Yours are the eyes through which to look out

Christ's compassion to the world

Yours are the feet with which he is to go about

doing good;

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.”

-St. Teresa of Ávila

Whatever you do this week, remember that God loves you no matter what!