Eyes for God...-

Rocks are being hurled at him...He kneels knowing these are his last moments on mother earth...

Rather than meeting his creator surrounded by love...He is being sent to eternity with hatred and wrath surrounding him...

"But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, hardly noticed - He only had eyes for God..." Acts 7:55-56 (MSG)

I've been focusing on Acts this week for my reading. Sitting in my car before and after classes, soaking in these men...this community of God lovers that GOT IT...truly GOT IT...

Then I sit with the book this morning and I begin reading about Stephen...

The words jump out at me..."He only had eyes for God..."


Acts says the mob that was stoning him was "yelling, hissing"...yet He is so aware of God...He is completely unaware of the mob...

How does that happen? How does one get to that place?

We often tell our lovers "I only have eyes for you..." then a pretty girl or handsome guy walks by...

It's become cliche'.

So in a distracted culture of electronics, selfishness, materialism, and idolatry...How do I truly only have eyes for him?

Relationship.

I think back to my first love...(whom I married and produced two cherubs with)...

I was smitten...absolutely smitten...to the point that I honestly thought He was THE most amazing man on the planet and I truly didn't look at other men...

As I think of this, It comes to me that it also could be factored in that I was innocent as well...unencumbered by responsibilities, real relationship problems such as finances etc., and our relationship had not been tainted yet by betrayals or pain...

We were in love...building towards a life...sharing laughter and love...supporting each other and believing that there was NO OTHER...

NO OTHER.

Aha.

NO OTHER.

We were so filled to the brim with one one another that NO OTHER could enter in and take our gaze from each other.

Stephen...He only had eyes for God because God was his ONLY lover...He was not encumbered by materialism, idolatry, hatred, un-forgiveness, lust, or lack of belief...He simply chose to place his eyes on the one that he knew could overcome those things and love him fully...

Don't get me wrong...I don't believe for a second that it was easy for Stephen to ask for forgiveness for his murderers WHILE they stoned him...or was it?

Did he love God so much and God loved him so much that he enabled him to cruise right through his own death, eyes locked in on Heaven, not experiencing pain, but the exhilaration of going home to his lover?

I don't know. Scripture doesn't say.

But this I do know: To live a life of eyes fixed on Christ my lover, I must love him more than anything. Period. Bottom line.

If I love him more than anything, then my eyes will stay fixed. I will only have eyes for Him.

I don't believe in our humanity that this means we will never fall, never move our gaze and become distracted...but, it does mean that when we do...this loving relationship provides acceptance and forgiveness when we look back into the eyes of our lover...

Because if we know one another, then there is a mutual trust...a knowing...a understanding of one another and our motives...when we are fully in love then we will strive to fulfill one another no holds barred...

Eyes for God...begins with love...unencumbered with other loves...it's a monogamous, passionate, fully alive experience...and it's the only way...

Stephen held the gaze of his lover Christ while he floated from this earth...because he knew that this earth was temporary and held him too far away from his passionate love affair...He was going home...and nothing could take his eyes away...

Grace n Peace,

A ~