When I was a boy, my family lived for a period of time much like how people lived at the turn of the 20th Century. We lived in a house without running water, used a wood stove for heat and to cook on, had an outhouse out back and no electricity. At night we used oil lamps.
Some things you need to know about oil lamps is that you don't just flip a switch like we're all accustomed to these days. A lamp required some preparation and maintainence. The wick had to be trimmed in order for the flame to burn brightly, the globe had to be cleaned so as not to impeade the light, oil had to be replaced in order for the fire to continue and placement of the lamp determined whether you could read by it or not. If you didn't take care of the lamp properly, it would not provide proper light and perhaps no light at all.
Jesus uses the lamp as an anology for how we bring or deny light in our lives, whether our souls live in the light or exist in darkness: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matt 6:22-23).
Healthy eyes shed light on the world around us by looking for the good in circumstances and in others. The actual Greek word means "generous." Generous eyes look for the best and find it. Unhealthy eyes, which look for the bad instead, find it and become darkened or cynical. The Greek word means "grudging."
So we look at others with a generous lens and see the best or with grudging eyes and see the worst. We either bring light into our souls or darkness. Both good and bad exist at all times. We can see the best in or the worst in everyone and everything. The choice is yours: Trim your lamp and let the brightness light your day or let it remain untended and allow the shadows to prevail. Jus' Sayn.
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