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JENNY'S EYES !
Ears that hear and
eyes that see-the LORD has made them both
(Proverbs 20:12).
The gentle hands of Jesus formed me long before Jenny was
born. The Lord's creative skills are evident in all the universe, but perhaps
in me His special touch speaks loudest. Three weeks after Jenny's life began
inside her mother, I started to take shape. At first, I looked quite strange,
but soon I took on a familiar round appearance. You see, I am Jenny's eyes and
I am a special gift from God to her.
When Jenny was born, the world seemed bright and she kept her eyelids shut most
of the time. If she did open them, I could not see well; everything was blurry.
At two months, I gave Jenny a fairly clear view of things across her room, but
I had trouble focusing on her crib toys. Now Jenny is eight years old and I
am fit as a fiddle! In fact, I am as good at my job as I ever will be.
Honestly, I can't figure out how the Heavenly Father created me. He skillfully
took millions of tiny cells and wove them together to give me shape. And the
abilities He gave me are nothing less than extraordinary. Did you know that
I take tiny bits of light called photons and change them into electricity? Really!
My insides are covered with a thin layer of very delicate cells called the retina
(REH - tin - ah). But not all of these special cells are the same. I use about
130 million of them to see faint objects in dim light. They are called rods
because they have a long, stick-like shape. When the sun goes down I switch
on my rods to help Jenny find her way in the dark. There is one problem, however-these
cells see only black and white, so when it's dark she can't see colors.
During the day, I use another set of cells called cones. These
cells allow Jenny to see the colors of her toys. (I guess they're called cones
because they look kind of like ice cream cones.) There are three types of cone
cells and together they allow me to see the many colors of the world: one kind
sees red, another blue, and the third green. Our wonderful Creator, Jesus, wired
seven million of these cones together within my retina so that Jenny could see
all the colors of the rainbow. Isn't He incredible?!
I'm pretty tough but Jenny's parents have taught her to take good care of me.
My "skin" isn't like normal skin; mine's hard and pearly white. Someone
gave it the funny name sclera (SKLAIR - ah). Between the retina and the sclera
is a layer of tissue containing a lot of blood vessels which supplies me with
oxygen and nutrients. It's a good thing, too, because my retina burns up more
calories for its size than any other tissue in Jenny's body. It seems I'm always
hungry!
| My "belly" is a large curved "window"
called the cornea (CORE - knee - ah). The cornea does most of the work of
focusing those hard-to-grab light rays onto Jenny's retina. Behind the cornea
is a lens made of protein crystals (not glass or plastic). Isn't it neat
how God creates things out of the most unusual stuff?! |
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The Lord Jesus also placed muscles inside of me that help with
the job of seeing. Yes, that's right, you use muscles to see! One group of muscles
causes me to change the shape of my lens so I can further focus light coming
in through the cornea. When Jenny reads a book, I really flex my muscles!
There's another pair of round muscles located between the cornea and lens called
the iris. I use these muscles to open or close Jenny's pupils-letting more or
less light inside her eyes. Jesus painted the iris of Jenny's eyes with a substance
called melanin. Melanin makes her eyes pretty. If the iris has a lot of melanin
in it, a person's eyes will be brown. Those with much less melanin have blue
eyes. Other eye colors are produced by amounts of melanin somewhere in between.
Like most of Jenny's body, I'm mainly made of fluid. In the front part of Jenny's
eye, between the cornea and lens, is a watery substance called aqueous (ah -
KWEE - us) humor. Most of me, though, is filled with a material called vitreous
(VIT - ree - us) humor which has the consistency of jelly.
Jenny took a walk in the woods with her dad and mom the other day. Boy, did
we have fun, but I worked hard! Someone has estimated that we eyes move back
and forth, up and down, more than 100,000 times each day! I think they must
be right because the six muscles attached to each of Jenny's eyes were really
tired after our day-long hike.
| Did you know that most people can recognize
almost 200 different colors? That must be why Jenny has so many kinds of
crayons! |
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What's weird is that not everyone describes colors in the same
way. I mean, think of all the ways someone could describe the color green in
English: emerald, teal, lime, sage, aquamarine, chartreuse, kelly, pea-green,
sea-green, forest-green, jade...well, you see what I mean. My friend, the ear,
overheard Jenny's parents say that some people have no word for certain colors.
There are people in New Guinea, the Jalé, who describe the color of a
green plant as light or dark, but they have no word for green. He went on to
say that the Japanese only recently added a word to their language to describe
the color blue.
Some people see fewer colors than other people and they are said to be color-blind.
The most common type of color-blindness is found in men who are unable to see
green or red, but who can recognize yellow and blue. About one out of every
twelve boys and one out of one hundred girls are red-green color-blind. They
live normal lives and can even drive cars when they grow up. It is extremely
rare for someone to be unable to see any colors at all.
I work very hard to give Jenny a good look at her world, but her vision really
takes place in her mind. And this points to how mysterious our Creator is. No
one, except God, knows what goes on in her brain to cause her to see. I've asked
my friends, the nose and the belly button, what happens inside her head and
they said they have no idea!
Curious about her own mind, Jenny went to the library one day last week to read
about the subject. She discovered that I send electrical signals through optic
nerves to her brain. Believe it or not, her mind takes an image apart, decides
what shape and color it is, how far away it is, and if it's moving. Jenny's
brain then puts all this information back together and Jenny can thus recognize
what she sees. Wow, God is an amazing Designer!
Jesus also made her mind with a tremendous capacity to remember things. Good
thing, too! Unless Jenny can remember the images and shapes she's seen before,
she would never be able to recognize everyday sights like the face of her mom
or a hot fudge sundae. My friends the taste buds are especially glad Jenny remembers
what a hot fudge sundae looks like!
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Even more amazing is Jenny's ability to recognize
something when I see only a part of it. During our walk in the woods Jenny
spied a skunk hiding behind a tree. She and her parents made sure they stayed
a safe distance away. My buddy the nose was relieved. Jenny's Creator is
so smart-He's thought of everything! |
Jesus also gave me the ability to see very faint or very distant
lights. The other night Jenny was out on the back porch looking at the beautiful
stars God has made. We learned that if we look directly at a faint star, we
won't see it very well, but if we look slightly off center, the star becomes
visible. That's because cone cells are concentrated in the center of Jenny's
retina where her daytime vision is best. Unfortunately, cones go to sleep in
the dark. The rods, which allow Jenny to see faint stars, surround the cones.
So it's best to look indirectly at a distant star in order to detect it.
The Bible says that everything in the universe was created by the Lord Jesus
and that He holds all things together (Colossians 1:16 & 17). Jenny's eyesight
was given to her by God, and her parents have taught her that she must take
care of me and all my friends. I'm glad Jesus made me and gave Jenny a mind
that can make sense of all the things we see. I may never know how He did this,
but it must really please Him that Jenny is able to see and recognize her parents,
her friends, and that ice cream sundae. I know I am a special gift to Jenny
from the Lord!
"Jesus Wept"
John 11:35
| When the Lord Jesus created people, He used
a brilliant design of complex chemicals and molecules. He used similar materials
to engineer animals and plants as well. But He set us apart from creation
by making us in God's image spiritually. There is also a physical
characteristic we share with Jesus. It is a human quality that can reflect
great sadness or undying love. Misunderstood and ridiculed by some, Jesus
bravely displayed it publicly-our ability to cry. |
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All people and many animals have tear glands and continually
produce tears. Normally we don't see them because the amount of tears is very
small. These invisible tears constantly cleanse the eyes and help keep our vision
healthy. Though many animals can produce tears, none can cry. An unhappy dog
might whine and wimper but it cannot weep. Crying is a physical manifestation
of our spiritual being. Nothing else in all creation can experience crying-the
Lord alone shared this expression of our deepest feelings.
Most adults accept that a child will have tears from time to time, but a child
who cries "too much" is labeled a cry-baby. Oddly, when children grow
up to be adults, they are not supposed to cry very often or they are considered
immature.
Unfortunately, crying is frowned upon in some societies. In certain cultures,
sobbing marks a woman as "weak" and is thought detestable in men.
Yet, as we will see, under many circumstances crying is perfectly normal and
healthy, something God shared with us.
Before we continue, let's take a little quiz-but don't worry, you won't be graded.
(The answers appear at the end of the article.)
1. How many times a month does an average woman cry?
a. 1-2
b. 3-4
c. 5 or more
2. True or False: It is normal for a woman to cry as
frequently as once a day.
3. True or False: It is normal for a man to cry up to
30 minutes at a time.
4. A normal, healthy, one-year-old baby will cry how
many times each month?
a. 5-10
b. 11-20
c. 21-40
d. 41-60
e. 61 or more
5. The time of the day people most often cry is:
a. 6-9 A.M.
b. 7-10 P.M.
c. 2-4 P.M.
d. 1-3 A.M.
6. Over a period of one month, what percentage of women don't
cry?
a. 6%
b. 16%
c. 36%
d. 56%
Take a moment to look up the answers-they might surprise you!
Dr. William Frey1 has researched crying for some time.
One conclusion we can draw from his work is that normal people cry frequently
and that crying is common to both men and women. The Lord cried when
He was here on Earth, so when we cry we are like Christ in this way.
Obviously, the Lord God designed us to be able to cry. Located under our eyelids
are special tissues, called lacrimal (LAK - rih - mal) glands,
which produce tears. These glands generate a constant flow of liquid which Y'Shua2
created for several reasons. These invisible tears:
* wash the surface of our eyes of
dirt and germs
* lubricate our eyes
* help supply important nutrients to the cornea because the cornea has no
blood vessels
* contain chemicals and antibodies that kill bacteria and prevent infection
*coat the surface of the eye to cover up defects in our corneas.
| Tears from the lacrimal glands
are spread across the surface of the eye each time we blink. The average
person blinks every six seconds. But blinking decreases when we're
reading (four times/minute in men) and increases when we're talking with
someone (up to 30 times/minute). Blinking also increases with anxiety.
If a person's rate of blinking becomes more frequent when they are speaking
with you, it may be that they are nervous or not telling the truth. |
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Once their job is done, tears drain from the eyes and into
the nose through tiny tubes located in the corner of each eye. These tubes get
blocked with a cold or an allergy; that's why teardrops build up and your eyes
become watery.
Normally, tears are produced in very small quantities-just enough to get the
job done. We even produce tears while we are sleeping. The "sand"
found in the corners of our eyes when we wake up is the salt and material of
dried tears.
The Lord Jesus made the lacrimal glands much larger than needed to produce normal
tearing, though. Why? He knew we would need to cry from time to time.
The physician Luke records Jesus' reaction to the devastating foreknowledge
that the people of Jerusalem were headed for destruction at the hands of Rome
in 70 A.D.:
As He approached Jerusalem
and saw the city, He wept over it. (Luke 19:41)
Jesus also cried when He saw the grief that Mary
and others experienced at the death of His friend, Lazarus (John 11:17-37).
Jesus' love for people was quite evident throughout His ministry, and He shed
teardrops to express that love.
Crying is a normal and uniquely human experience shared by the living God when
He was on Earth. No other part of His creation, including angels, has the ability
to express itself in this way. There are those who think crying is a sign of
weakness; how many of them would be willing to be nailed to a cross and die?
Christ was!
There is a time for
everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:...
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1 & 4)
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:
1. c.
2. True
3. True
4. e.
5. b.
6. a.
Notes:
1 - William H. Frey II, Ph. D., Crying: The Mystery
of Tears, (Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1985), pp. 71- 76.
2 - Hebrew for Jesus
NO MORE TEARS
Since ancient times
no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You,
Who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those
who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin...You
were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is
unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up
like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away
(Isaiah 64:4-6).
Tears often represent the outpouring of joy and
pain we experience in our lifetime. We cry because of sadness, as in "bitter
weeping," or because of happiness, with "tears of joy."
Pain prevails in our world, whether it is physical pain, emotional pain, or
spiritual pain. Many things happen to us that cause us deep hurt, and this may
lead to the shedding of tears. Our Heavenly Father fully realizes how much anguish
we experience here on Earth and He longs to remove the pain and tears from our
lives. Isaiah records God's promise that some day "the Sovereign LORD will
wipe away the tears from all faces" (Isaiah 25:8).
In order that His love would become real to us, God Himself became flesh and
blood and experienced human pain (Philippians 2:6-8). Enduring a horrible death
on a cross, Jesus, God's Son, experienced much more than physical agony, though.
On the cross, He took upon Himself our sins. He suffered the anger and wrath
of His Father BECAUSE OF US! This anger and wrath should have been directed
at us for our rebellion against God; the Bible says, "for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Yet Christ suffered
punishment for you and me so that we might be forgiven for all our sins-if only
we would repent and put our full trust in Him.
Although this world will remain a painful place for now, the Lord has prepared
a dwelling for those who love Him. In heaven, "He will wipe every tear
from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,
for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
There is only one way to get to this place we call heaven-through the Lord Jesus
Christ (John 14:6). Because we have betrayed God and turned our backs on Him,
He cannot accept us into His company as we are. Jesus, however, can take your
sins and nail them to the cross. If you are willing to be forgiven and to have
the assurance of eternal life in a place where pain and crying do not exist,
then consider your relationship with God right now!
Dear God, I confess
that I have lived my life independently of You, and that my rebellion is
sin. Please forgive me through Your Son, Jesus Christ—through His death
on the cross. Jesus, please come into my heart right now and become my King
and my God. I accept Your gift of eternal life. Show me how to live the
way You want me to live. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
"No eye has
seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for
those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
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