In our epistle today, the apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians, and for us, that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Perhaps now that the celebration of Christ’s birth, with all its preparations, is behind us, we can pause in these twelve days of the Christmas season, catch our breath, and consider the “eyes of our hearts.”

It’s easy for us to gloss over that phrase in our scripture passage assuming it is merely poetic language, because our rational minds know that the heart doesn’t have eyes. If, however, we sit with the phrase for a bit, we may make room for God’s spirit of wisdom and revelation to reach us on a deeper level. As we ponder what it would be like to see with the eyes of our hearts, we may discover an entirely new way of looking at the world. Looking with the eyes of the heart would involve looking through love. Just imagine how that would change our perception of what’s going on around us, how it might change our reactions to what we see before us.

When we see the world through the eyes of our heart, we accept others as they are, appreciate the beauty of all creation, forgive those who hurt us, help those in any need or adversity, recognize the hand of God at work in the world, offer compassion to those who suffer, delight in the meaningful coincidences that occur, generously give of ourselves in the service of others, and trust that as Julian of Norwich puts it, “All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.”