A action and reaction of Tayla has blessed me enormously in the last few weeks. When she’s playing or crawling she will turn around every now and then to see if we’re watching her. Vigorous talking, shaking, smiling or screeming will be interupted with a pause and a catching of the eye. When she’s praised she replies with an enormous smile. I can’t begin to explain to you what this does to me as a father. Her affirmation seeking action evokes an amazing array of emotions within me.

In the Bible we read numerous times that “the eye of the Lord is upon us”. Unfortunately statements like this has been associated with God’s anger or displeasure; but what if it’s actually more like me watching Tayla? This way of understanding God’s watching or eying me has been a huge encouragement for me. Catching God’s eye does have a necessary prerequisite. We have to pause every now and then and look for his approving glance.

There’s another helpful phrase in the Bible that explains this – it is called “eye service”. The question asked by this phrase is, ‘whose eye am I trying to catch?’. The full sentence in the Bible reads:

“Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”

Like Tayla, I want to look for God’s attentive eye. And I know that when we do this our Father feels some immense pleasure.