Eye Color Conversation

Jeremiah with his little sister, Amanda

Recently, Amanda was sitting on the couch with her brother and they were having a conversation. She looked at him and said, “I didn’t know your eyes are green.”

Her brother answered, “Everyone in our family has green eyes.”

Amanda then opened her eyes wide and replied, “I can’t see my eyes!”

How important is eye color to you? I can still remember hearing the missionary story of Amy Carmichael from my childhood days at Sunday school. When Amy was a young girl, she used to pray and ask God to give her blue eyes. She loved her brother’s blue eyes and was sad that she had brown ones. Amy had great child-like faith, but when God didn’t answer her prayers, she was deeply disappointed.

It was only many years later, as a missionary to India, that Amy understood God’s wisdom in creating her with brown eyes. A white lady with blue eyes would have stood out as different. She didn’t want her physical appearance to be a hindrance in reaching the Indians, so she chose to dress like them and look like them, sometimes even dying her skin with tea to make it darker.

Another reason why it was important for her to blend in was that she was doing a dangerous job. She had discovered that young girls were being sold into temple prostitution and she began “stealing” them to safety. Under Amy’s care many young women’s lives were transformed.

I would like to leave you with a quote by Amy Carmichael.

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving."

Another post related to this that you might like to read from me is from my blog, Happy Moms, Happy Homes: "Discovering Your Potential - Part 2."