Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me in the shadow of your wings.

Psalm 17:8

God keeps us as the apple of his eye, right in the center of his vision. Imagine the scene after Jesus had been taken into custody: Peter follows at a distance, sits down with people around a fire in the courtyard. His face glows in the light of the fire. A servant girl recognizes him. She leans closer, looking at him. Peter feels her stare. She makes her accusation: “This man was with him.”

Peter denies it. “Woman, I don’t know him.”

Time passes and someone else sees him and says, “You are also one of them.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter exclaims.

About an hour later another speaks out: “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is from the same town.”

Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

Then Luke tells us, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter” and Peter wept bitterly (from Luke 22:54-66). 

The eye of the Lord illumined Peter’s soul. John Donne writes that when Peter saw Jesus looking at him from where he was being held under arrest “The eye of the Lord thawed those three crusts of ice which were grown over his heart in his three denials of his Master.” It was Jesus’ eye contact that broke Peter’s heart.

The gaze of the Lord works upon a good soul as the hand of a seasoned sculptor works upon his clay. Jesus didn’t need to say anything. The Lord simply looked at his friend and at that moment Peter was broken, cut to the core. It was the loving gaze of Jesus that transformed him.

God has turned us to look toward him. The Lord knows where we have been. He knows our thoughts. The rooster has crowed the third time.

Jesus sees.

Devotional Activity

Spend a few minutes in prayer looking into the eyes of Jesus.

The content of this post is from All Creation Sings by Luann Budd.