The color of God’s eyes

When my mother was dying last year, I made it a point to make her experience involve thinking about the nice things in her life. I had learned some cognitive exercises from a psychologist friend of mine, who had used them with her own mother, who had been dying a decade earlier.

As my friend did, I had my mother write in a ‘scrapbook’. It was a simple journal that she had bought to record some of the good memories of her life. The purpose of the book was to reaffirm the goodness of her life, rekindle happy memories, and reinforce God’s love.

In it she wrote details such as the names of the nuns she was taught as a child at a convent school in Italy, the names of her friends, pets, favorite foods, etc. I also asked her to write wishes for each of her children and her extended family. In her memories, she inevitably brought up the theme of God. Other members of the family were shy about bringing up the subject of her impending death, but she knew very well that she was dying and would soon leave her physical body and I think she found writing, thinking and speaking to be spiritually therapeutic.

During one of these conversations, as she lay in her hospice bed, we were talking about heaven. Instinctively and nonchalantly I asked her to remember to tell us what color God’s eyes were when she got to Heaven. He was trying to make her smile and break up the otherwise somber conversation. I told her that I suspected God’s eyes were blue, like in the picture of Christ she was using as a bookmark in the scrapbook in front of her. I asked her to promise to let us know as soon as she met God face to face. She nodded the nod she used to give me, accused in her 50s of asking her seemingly peculiar questions.

Months later, after she died, I kept thinking about that exchange. While we all know that God does not have human form, he often helps us to think in those terms. Of course, God had a pair of human eyes, since he took on human form in Christ. These were the eyes that brought vision and clarity of truth to an often troubled and often blind world. I do not think it is a mere coincidence that much of the gospels mention the eyes, the windows of the soul. Human eyes are wounded and healed in several New Testament passages.

I had almost forgotten about the conversation with my mother… until one clear autumn afternoon, shortly after her death. She was walking under a bright blue sky in a nearby park, and there were many people enjoying the sunshine and the rustle of leaves swirling in the wind. There were young people and old people, and people from different backgrounds. There were lovers, babies, friends, parents and children… all enjoying the fresh air. As I looked at the rainbow of people having fun in the park, the answer to my question was painfully obvious.

To my surprise, God’s eyes were really blue! His eyes are also…brown…and green…and grey. These colors were all around me that afternoon. God’s eye reflected all the brilliant colors that are the beautiful hues and spectrum of our human family. Now I’m sure my mother knows.

Because if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, our God has made us a truly wonderful vision. When it is each of our opportunities to meet God face to face and look into his loving eyes, I am sure we will see this to be very true, and we will find God as one who reflects each of us.