The Apple of God's Eye

"Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings..." [Psalm 17:8]

Has anyone ever said to you, "You are the apple of my eye"? This is a relatively old expression, probably said by our older relatives. But it turns out this is an ancient phrase. Moses (the guy that led the Israelites out of Egypt on a 40 year mapless roadtrip to the Promised Land) actually said this in one of the early books of the Bible. There he was referring to Jacob and how God provided for him and helped him on his own desert wanderings. I never realized the phrase had such ancient connections.

What does it mean though to be someone's eye fruit? Maybe we should consider the phrase "eye candy" first? The latter phrase, loaded with sexual undertones, is used to describe someone's beauty, but really in a kind of sexual tension bordering on lust. To look at someone as "eye candy" might seem like harmless fun, but it does demean that person. It reduces them to an object that perhaps we discern would be bad for us, even though we might desire it all the same (at least if we take the "candy" image to its fullest extent). Perhaps being the "apple of one's eye" might at first seem like an ancient way of saying "woo-hoo" at a person as well. You know, if we follow the tradition of an apple being the forbidden fruit I guess it would make some bizarre sense.

But what if being the "apple" took that same implication back to the story of Adam and Eve as being vital, or most important of all other things growing in the garden? It is this sense of being beloved, or held dearly, that this phrase, "the apple of my eye" has grown to mean. Being the apple of one's eye is a reminder that we are loved and valued.

Our culture likes to find ways to make us feel uncomfortable with who we are and what we look like all the time. Here though we see the psalm writer ask God to keep them as the one held dearly, the one brought under the protection of a wing like a chick with its mother. What an amazing image this is after all! God holds you and me, each of us, close. God values you for who you are and how you were created to be and desires to "dote" on you. (Or as one of my Southern friends liked to say, "come over here and let me love on ya".)

When we meet others "by the way" we have an opportunity to see the beauty that God sees in us and by so doing we discover just a little glimpse of God working in the world. This is the wonder of a little fruit from the Fall (the season, not the Bible) that can give us hope for a world where all are welcome and all are loved and doted on. Together we discover how we are God's "apple" and we come together to become a living "pie"--mixing together and using our gifts as a fragrant offering to God.