February in New Zealand is the height of summer. It doesn't rain much, and the sun beats down so hard that much of the grass turns yellow and golden. The good news is that you can escape the scorching sun by ducking under the shade of a tree to stay cool. And even in the heat of the day, if you go to the nearby beaches and get in the water, it's cool enough to be cold. This is a great grace and blessing to live in New Zealand.

However, there is one complaint that I'm not complaining about. Being so close to the ocean, there are a lot of seagulls and their aerial fecal terrorism. The problem with this is that these droppings harden in the hot weather. Especially if it hardens on the windshield of my car, it can be difficult to clean it off. It takes a lot of work from the wipers, along with a lot of washer liquid, to clean it off.

The combination of the wiper's effort and the melting of the water solution makes it possible to drive the vehicle safely. The same principle applies to glasses. I've been wearing glasses since the third grade, so I've been wearing glasses for about 40 years. No matter how healthy your eyes are and how bright your mind is, if your glasses are dirty and full of debris, you won't be able to see the world properly. In this case, you need to give them a good cleaning with a good cleaner.

The eyes are a person's only and greatest tool for seeing the world. They must be bright to see the world fully and properly. Of course, understanding and interpreting what they see is another story. What I hope you will agree with is that we believe what we see and do what we see. So I think what we see and hear is very important. In that sense, our eyes are a treasure. I believe that what they see is even more precious because it affects the mind, heart, and soul.

I had a spiritual conversation with the Holy Spirit in this line of thought. Holy Spirit God, how then should the eyes of my soul open and close to see? Since it is a conversation with the Lord, there are no restrictions or limitations... As I continued to meditate last night and this morning, I had a realization in my heart. “To open the eyes of the soul is to close the eyes for prayer.” 

The beginning of opening the spiritual eyes of a praying person is to close the eyes of the world. When the eyes are closed, it is pitch black and dark, but God is there and working. The point of this column is that these eyes of the soul need to be cleaned regularly. “The spiritual wiper for the eyes of the soul is worship, and the washer is prayer.” May there be prayer in our worship that permeates and dissolves.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)