Sonrise Magazine

” Born Again” colored pencil by Raisa Estrada

Proverbs 4:25 Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. (NLT)

Our dear old friend Webster gives us this definition of Mind’s Eye: The mental faculty of conceiving imaginary or recollected scenes; also: the mental picture so conceived. And if you search Mind’s Eye in our newer standby Google you will find all kinds of interesting, and sometimes kooky, articles written by a wide variety of “experts”, from scientists to spiritualists, about the meaning of the Mind’s Eye. Pretty “heady” stuff.

My perception of a Mind’s Eye is a bit more personal. I tend to think of it as a special picture or memory stored in my heart – which is located right next to my Mind’s Eye – and one that makes me smile whenever I think of it. Maybe you have a Mind’s Eye that’s very close to your heart too? The memory of some “people, place or thing” that brings you right back to that moment in time when you captured the picture in the most lasting medium God ever created – in your Mind’s Eye. And you alone can find it any time you recall it from, yes, right next to your heart.

I know that we all have countless pictures stored in our memories. They are what make up the history of who we are and where we have come from. Memories of all those people, those places, or those things that you silently but constantly carry in your heart. You know what I mean.

There are two particular pictures I have stored in my Mind’s Eye that are so beautiful I long to show them in a more tangible way than in words. If only I could have had a camera in my hand to capture the sight that now lives vividly and in full color – yes – right next to my heart, in my Mind’s Eye. Both are delightful images of children, each in two very different worlds. I long to share them with you in all the vivid detail that I have tucked away in my heart. Lord, please give me the words I need to ‘paint’ these word pictures.

The first is an amazing scene I actually saw with my eyes for about as long as it would have taken for the shutter of a camera to snap. I was riding in a car through the dirt streets of Matadi, Democratic Republic of Congo as we began our journey back to Kinshasa along with about 24 of my Congolese Aglow sisters. In our group were the members of the Aglow Africa Committee, each one the Aglow National President in their own nations, and members of the Aglow Congo National Board. I felt happy and amazed to be part of this special group.

Just the day before we had traveled 5 hours by small bus from Kinshasa to Matadi to take part in a dedication service for an amazing structure that the women of Aglow Matadi had been building which would serve as their local Aglow office, meeting rooms, and conference center, and with visions to rent it out to other Christian groups as well.

These women, full of vision and strength from the Lord, had made plans for a modest building so they could have a permanent place for their meetings. When their husbands saw the plans they had made they told their wives, “You are thinking too small!”

So, they allowed their vision to increase, drew new plans and began to build bigger, “one bag of cement at a time.”

At the time we were there, thick cement walls were erected but the roof and floor were yet to come. When our small group arrived at the meeting place, we were met by a couple hundred happy women and men who had all gathered there to greet us with banners waving and music celebrating their excitement. My eyes filled with tears as I took in the scene. We all had expected to gather around the doorframe of a modest building and dedicate it for the Lord’s work through Aglow in Matadi. The scene we were met with was incredible!

Today the building is completed and in full use just as those amazing Aglow women had envisioned!

I was greeted by two little girls.

Back to the joyful picture stored in my mind’s eye.

As we were driving through the main part of town on our way back to Kinshasa, we passed the scene that is forever in my memory. There, right beside the dirt road between the passing cars and the little open shops of the market, were three small children. They were very young, looking to be about 3, 4 and 5 years old, possibly siblings, standing around a red plastic bucket on the ground between them that was filled with water. The older child was holding a bar of soap and the three of them were all laughing and enjoying the best time of working up a frothy white soapy lather on each other. What a happy sight.

There they stood – three happy naked children with white soapsuds shining all over their very black little wet bodies. No cares or worries for them – just pure enjoyment of the moment.

Oh how I wish I had a snapshot of that scene. But it is safely and forever recorded in my mind’s eye and I have to be satisfied with enjoying the vividness of the scene all to myself. I hope I have helped you “see” it too! Happy children in a small west Africa town, immersed in pure joy.

” Joy” Acrylic by Raisa Estrada

There is a second image in my mind’s eye of another small group of siblings, quiet joy filling their faces, in a very different setting on the other side of the world from our African friends.

My husband and I were invited for an afternoon visit with an Amish family, neighbors of our good friends in rural Montana. We had been to their home once before, and it was delightful to visit with them again. The purity, simplicity and Godly focus of the Amish way of life is beautiful and it is a joy to experience a tiny bit of their home life.

As we talked about the canning to be done from the bountiful harvest of their big garden, one of the younger children told us about their “sunflower house” and the fun playtimes they were having in it. The parents explained that in the spring when they were planting their garden; they had planted some sunflower seeds in the shape of four squares that delightfully grew up tall and strong to form four “walls” of their “sunflower house”! What fun, and yes, I would love to see it.

Three of the children, brothers about 6 and 7 years old and their little 5-year-old sister happily led me out to the garden to see their sunflower playhouse.

I had to press between heavy stalks of the sunflowers to find my way into the first “room”, bending down to sit on a little bench in the “kitchen” of their playhouse. As I surveyed the evidence of happy playtimes all around me, I saw another bench with round circles drawn on one end – the burners on their “stove”. On the other end of that bench was the worktable with a little toy-sized rolling pin and good amount of dirt – clearly showing the work of rolling out “biscuits” that had taken place there earlier in the day.

The playhouse had two more “rooms”, each surrounded by “walls” made of thick stalks of the sunflower plants as thick as small trees, and with their healthy leaves and bright yellow flowers happily forming the roof towering several feet above. What a joyous “house” it was!

This scene in my mind’s eye will forever be a moment of quiet happiness. Two little brothers, both barefooted and wearing buttoned blue shirts just like their daddy’s, dark pants with suspenders, standing alongside their little sister, also enjoying the bare feet of summer, wearing a light blue dress with white apron, her blonde braids hanging to her shoulders. They stood there looking at me amidst the filtered sunlight shining through the sunflower leaves, surrounded by the great heavy stalks of those majestic plants. The yellow flowers reached far above their young heads, and the little girl’s hand was lightly touching one of the plant stalks. Their faces were open, peaceful, and proudly sharing with me the special place they had to play in the middle of the garden.

What a sight it was! If only I could have grabbed my cellphone to snap a photo of the moment. But I knew that in the Amish culture, it would not be proper to do that. It had to be preserved as another treasure for my mind’s eye.

“Sunflowers” Pencil Sketch by Ann Jackson

Both these memories are forever in my “mind’s eye”, always nearby to remember and enjoy whenever I want to re-experience the peaceful joy those images bring back to me. I hope you can “see” them too!

As we seek to celebrate LIFE in all its expressions, especially in the lives of children, it brings joy and wonder to picture this childlike joy in these two very different parts of the world.

Children are the same everywhere. In small towns of the Congo as well as on the farms of rural America. They all have the same needs for love and protection to grow strong and confident. As Christians we all would agree a most important need is for the adults in their lives to nurture them and raise them in safety and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Lord, help us to nurture the children You bring into our lives to grow into the full knowledge of You and Your love for them. There may be children You bring to us that need special protection from the world’s sorrows and need to be rescued and restored. Help us Lord, to affect their lives for their good and Your glory. Amen