He saw “orange eyes” but then took a second look

My wife and I stopped at a café for lunch in another state a few months ago when limited dining was allowed. I looked into the eyes of a young man who came over to wait on our table and was stunned to see bright luminescent orange orbs laced with black webbing glaring at me.

The view was eerie, scary, like a look one might see in a Halloween thriller movie. It caught me off guard for I had never seen a human being with brilliant orange retinas before.

Trying to make sense of what I saw, I remembered reading an article about people injecting pigment into their retinas to change the color of their eyes. I decided that this young man had a procedure done to alter the color of his eyes.

I was quick to concede that why he changed the color of his eyes was his business, but I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why did he choose orange eyes? What message did he intend to send to others?”

As I prayed for composure over this startling scene, I thought about Jesus Christ’s admonition, “Do not judge according to appearance” (John 7:24, NKJV). From my faith study over the years, I’ve grown to interpret this statement as meaning we each have a spiritual individuality with God that can never be assessed from a physical point of view. The physical body is a temporal concept that dissolves with time and is left behind for our eternal spiritual individuality that lasts forever with God.

To correctly know another person, we must look beyond their physical appearance to what they possess in spirit with God.

I decided that to see the true individuality of this man, I needed to look beyond the color of his eyes. From a spiritual point of view, it didn’t make any difference if he had orange, pink, red, or blue eyes. Matter doesn’t matter. His spiritual individuality with God composed his real manhood and needed to be the center of my attention, not the color of his eyes.

With this redirection of focus from physical appearance to spiritual individuality, whenever he came to our table, I did my best to see beyond the bright glow in his eyes to the spiritual qualities of God he expressed.

He was courteous, thoughtful, gentle, considerate, conscientious, punctual, and friendly. He was a fine young man with many admirable qualities, and performed his duty as waiter with skill. He was not scary at all.

My thoughts toward this individual improved dramatically as I saw a child of God, rather than a person with orange eyes.

From a spiritual vantage point, it was easy to see him in a favorable light and not be concerned about his orange eyes. What I saw on the surface didn’t matter compared to when I saw him living in spirit.

My wife and I enjoyed our lunch and were grateful to leave the restaurant reminded of a valuable spiritual lesson. How important it is to never judge another person by their physical appearance. It’s what they possess spiritually that matters and constitutes their individuality as a child of God.

Next time I see a person with orange eyes, I’ll be ready with supportive thoughts ahead of time!