Do you ever listen to a song and a line just keeps running on repeat in your head?
I would often find myself walking through the Refugee Camp singing to myself, ‘Would you let me see the world behind your eyes’. It’s a line from a Jon Foreman song.
I would watch the people who I passed on the way to the market or to the clinic and that line would become a prayer,
‘Would you let me see the world behind their eyes, Lord?’.
I wondered about each one whom I passed. What had they seen and how did they now perceive the world in light of what they had experienced?
Today, back in Australia, I find myself still repeating that line in my heart as I walk through the shopping centre or a patient walks into my GP office.
Lord, help me see the world behind their eyes.
I wrote the following poem in the camp, after riding past Romea on my bike, then meeting Matthias at the clinic a few days later. They both had big smiles and a sparkle in their eyes but their physical bodies were more broken than most.
I continued to think of others like them who had intrigued and inspired me and wrote the following,
BEHIND YOUR EYES
If you could see the world behind another’s eyes, whose eyes would it be?
Matthias, as I greeted you this morning, your sparkling, shy eyes brought me delight.
Patiently you sit each Tuesday on that log outside the malnutrition compound.
My heart churns within.
How many more days will you live with that failing liver of yours?
Has your aching body and tender heart got a place to rest?
What do you know of your mother and family who you left behind when those bombs dropped?
Would you let me see the world behind your eyes?
Romea, as I rode past you on my bike your happy smile spoke peace.
Joyfully you limp past me with buckets of water on your head and in your hands.
Deep down, I tremble, imagining the pain of grinding bone on bone as you go about your daily tasks.
For how many years have you walked with that weak and deformed leg3?
What difference would it make to your daily life if you could walk without pain and a limp?
Would you let me see the world behind your eyes?
Amos, as I sat with you on the treatment room bench you offered me your arm and your confidence.
For months you visited the hospital twice daily, so that more medicine could be injected.
My heart sinks
Remembering the X-ray showing your two infection-riddled bones4.
Did I accurately share with you the truth about your sick bones and inspire faith?
What happened when war came to your town?
How are your bones and how is your heart, brave one?
Would you let me see the world behind your eyes?
Habooba, as I hear you singing to ‘Kuku Mr Brave’ you give our family a place to belong.
Consistently, you have nurtured your children and their children and my child.
Deep down, I wonder…
They call you a ‘refugee’ and your life has been enfolded by war.
How do you still sing after losing eight of your sixteen cherished children?
What did your young heart dream of and what have you learnt through the pain?
Would you let me see the world behind your eyes?
Jesus, as I walk with You daily, I hear Your soft, still voice leading me on.
Without condemnation, You offered your life, poured out unto death on that Cross.
My heart now alive,
To see with open eyes Your distressing disguise in front of me.
How do You feel when Your broken body is overlooked or mistreated?
If You were me, in this one little body of mine, how would You live and how would You love?
Would you let me see the world behind Your eyes?
I sometimes sit and try and get my head around the mystery of God becoming man.
He had two human eyes like you and I through which He saw the world.
Not only two human eyes but a human body. The bible says that within the limitations of a human body He experienced the messy and broken parts of our human existence:
He had to be made like them (us),fully human in every way,
In order that He might become a mercifuland faithful high priest in service to God,and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Because He himself suffered when He was tempted,
He is able to help those who are being tempted. 6
The King of Kings, humbled Himself to see the world through our broken glasses, to free us to see the world through His lenses of Love.
What about you?
Who have you passed or interacted with this week who has intrigued you, inspired you… or maybe even frustrated you?
Whose eyes would you like to see behind?
Who do you need to see in a fresh light from God’s perspective?
May this be our prayer,
Would you let me see the world behind ________’s eyes Lord? (Fill in the blank.)
Would you let me see the world behind Your eyes Lord?
This simple prayer has helped me to be more present in the moment and get a glimpse of God’s love for those who I walk by and interact with each day.
I encourage you to start praying these prayers too.
Grace and peace
Hope
Originally drafted from home in the refugee camp 2017.
Further insight
- ‘Behind Your Eyes’ by Jon Foreman
- Matthias had chronic Hepatitis B with end stage liver disease
- I suspect Romea has a limp from a Polio infection as a child
- Amos had Osteomyelitis, an infection, in 2 of his bones, I met him while serving at a Women and Children’s hospital in another town.
- The photos and names do not correspond to the people in the poem for privacy purposes.
- Hebrews 2:17-18
Hallelujah in the Mountains 