The Eyes that Witness

 Many lenses filter what we see.

At times, the world appears bright, full of love and endless promises of goodness yet-to-come.  We anticipate the arrival of ample joy throughout the coming hours.  

At other times, the world is cold, dark and lifeless.  Any possibility of goodness is swallowed up by the consuming bleakness that hovers all about us.  

At yet other times, we are splayed open.  Ready to accept whatever comes our way, we greet the world in a forthright, almost childish way.

Countless other feelings color the way we receive the day.  These are psychic lenses that we place over our eyes.  They interpret what we say.  They become our reality.

The Talmud records the difference between the brothers of Genesis, Cain and Abel.  The former slew his sibling in a fit of jealous rage.  Here is the Talmud’s observation:

For Cain there was no justice in the world.  Good was not rewarded.  Evil went unpunished.  His world was empty, dark and forbidding.  Cain reasoned that goodness was not a virtue but a weakness.

For Abel, the vast universe was created with Divine love and mercy.  Able looked at the world and saw endless life and excitement in each petal, every blade of grass.  Forgiveness was part of the unwritten rule governing the universe.

We make our own reality.  We are the interpreters of what we see and then how we interact with the world.  Choose the path of goodness, of Godliness.  Choose the path of peace and aiding those who are crying.  It does not only change them…it also informs how we see our world, feel about ourselves, and please our Maker.