Shampoo. Soap. Sweat. Salt water. Chlorine. Eyelash. Bug. Dirt. All of these things have gotten in my eyes at some point in my life. The funny thing is none of these things belong in our eyes. Sometimes it just happens, but it’s almost always an easy fix using our hands, a towel, and some fresh water.

Lately, for me it’s been shampoo. It burns. It burns a lot. I fumble around with my eyes closed in the shower trying to find a towel to wipe my eyes. The five seconds it takes to find the towel seems like forever while my eyes are burning. Eventually, I find the towel and everything is fine until I shampoo my hair again tomorrow.

This has happened several times over the last week and it made me wonder. How long would my eyes burn if I didn’t have use of my hands to wipe out the very irritating shampoo? What if my supply of fresh water ran out? Would my natural tears accomplish the burn removal on their own?

Now, I’m not going to volunteer to get you answers to my questions, as simple as it would be, because it’s bound to happen again. I’m just not a fan of unnecessary pain. We all, at one point or another, know of the pain I’m talking about. Have you ever thought about that pain with Jesus in mind?

Our Lord was crucified for our sins. I think we are all aware of that fact and are all so very thankful for His sacrifice. We know (I say we know, but do we REALLY know?) the pain he suffered with the scourging of his body, the spikes in his hands and feet, the crown of thorns pressed down onto his head, the agony of just trying to breathe, and the mocking he endured. It’s hard for us to even grasp that kind of pain and sacrifice.

We have all seen the artist renderings of our Lord on the cross. We see the agony portrayed on his face. We see the the spikes. We see the thorns. Some go as far as having blood and sweat running down his face. I imagine the thorns caused bleeding. I imagine the pain, the agony, and the difficulty breathing would cause a person to sweat. Our Lord hung on that cross for hours and could not wipe his eyes because his hands were nailed to the cross for you and me. This thought, as minuscule as it is, causes me to tear up.

Our Lord could not wipe his eyes because of my sin.

It’s such a simple task to wipe our eyes that we don’t even think much about it. But we know the burn. While we can never fully grasp the pain of the cross, we can in a very small sense know how his eyes felt. The next time something gets in our eyes, remember our Lord’s eye. Remember how he could not wipe that pain away because he has too busy wiping all of our sins away.

By: Kristina Odom